Empty Brooke and Invader Zim 2
by Kimberly Rashinda
Summary: The second in the EmptyBrookeInvaderZim series. This one is called Minds of Mutual Insanity! Brooke did the first chapter... not the prologue, the first chapter I said. Anyways, enjoy or I'll send Brooke after you all! Then you'll be sorry! Reviews 4 me!
1. Prologue

Kim: Here it is peoples! The 'awaited?' sequel to Empty Brooke and Invader Zim. I didn't think that the story could end with Brooke's death because that was just dumb so I made this as a response to that! Whee!

More love in this story than the last!

Song sequence that's going to come after wards.

This story is going to be longer too!

And Brooke thought up the cool name, I couldn't think of one. Anyways! Read away!

**Empty Brooke and Invader Zim**

_**2**_

Minds of Mutual Insanity 

Prologue

"Holy Shit! I'm an Irken!"

------------------------------------------

Zim eyed the girl.

She was the same height as him, if not slightly shorter, with long antenna and a black outfit with the Irken insignia in blood red like the stripes of her outfit. Her boots, black as they were, glimmered slightly. The metal of the left one shone in his eye but he quickly shook it off. What intrigued him about this Irken, however, was the color of her eyes. Never had he seen a color so dark. They were like night. Before then Zim had never been aware that an Irken's eyes could be so dark.

He rose himself up on his spider legs slightly as they ejected from his PAK and moved towards the Irken. She flinched back a second and then went eerily calm. Zim eyed her for a moment and leaned in to get a closer view. He rubbed his chin once. Twice. Thrice. Then he turned to her eyes and scowled.

"What were you doing to my ship?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing? What jerked me awake?"

She shrugged. The she stopped. "Wait a second. What am I to you?"

Zim raised his invisible eyebrow. "That depends on what your PAK signature is."

"So… I'm an Irken? Just like you?"

"Yes."

"A real Irken?"

"Of course! And you have been since you were a little smeet! What are you thinking?"

"N… Nothing."

Zim rubbed his chin again. "You're filled with a lot of nothing today aren't you? Ok. What does your PAK read?"

"Invader…" he noticed that the Irken female paused for a second upon seeing his face. "Assistance. I was… sent here to… assist in the conquer of Earth… Um… The Tallest said that you may want… an extra hand around the planet… you know… seeing as you were never able to acquire your battle tanks and what not."

Zim lowered himself back to the ground. "Indeed. Contrary to the matter, if you are to be my assistant I will need your name."

"My name?"

"Yes. You do have one right?"

"Course I have a name! It's… uh… EB."

-------------------------------------

Zim watched as his assistant's hologram was activated. The person that stood before him was no longer an Irken. It was a human, which, in some way, was a good thing. In others, however, it was bad. He ignored both possibilities and watched as the blurs dissipated.

The human before him had long, wavy, brown hair, which mostly fell in front of her face. Her eyes were plain brown with short eyelashes if none at all and she had long legs with a small torso and average length arms. Her skin was so pale it looked like she'd never gotten sun and her face was in a small smile. EB, in her human form, had on a pair of blue jeans that were ripped at the base and a blue and gray striped sweater wrapped around her waist. Her T-shirt was black and had a skull on it with wings that came out from behind the head. A set of headphones hung out from her left pocket and gum stuck out from her right one. The last thing to add to her disguise was a sterling silver coffin necklace around her neck. Zim could see that it opened up to show a little skeleton inside. (LOL this is Brooke's FAVORITE outfit!)

Zim raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure that will fit in? It doesn't look… real…"

"And yours does?"

---------------------------------------------

Zim sighed. Drawing Dib falling into magma was becoming boring. Despite the fact that he would have loved to see it he grew tired of the time that it took to draw a descent drawing. Even then it completely and utterly sucked.

The Irken rested his head on his arms, which were lying flat on his desk, crossed over one another. He cocked his head to the side and looked at his apprentice across the room.

His head shot up like a bullet at what he saw.

EB had her fingertip on the Dib-stink's nose. Dib was staring, cross-eyed, at it and looked completely confused. He just watched her finger and stayed perfectly still in his seat. EB's pencil was moving on the paper in front of her so quickly that Zim was surprised the paper didn't fall of the table.

Zim's eyes lowered as he watched his apprentice and his mortal enemy being social. EB didn't even seem to realize how horrible this was. She just sat there and drew her heart out as though there was nothing to be worried about. Well there was and come lunchtime he would remind her of that.

Brooke pulled the drawing up to Dib's face. The boy, still surprised, took it in his hand and pulled it up to his face, eyes still on her. As he looked at the paper his eyes lost their anger and became interested more in the drawing than the fact that 'Brooke was an alien.' "It looks… just like me…"

"Yeah… I was aiming for that."

-----------------------------------------

There was a flashed of light and I went blind for a second. I rubbed my eyes and noticed that the light was gone but I still couldn't see. After all, I'm not used to the light…

I heard B scream.

I heard Aimee scream.

I heard Ahva grunt. Then I felt her poke me.

"Watch it!"

"Brooke? Is that you?"

"Yeah… It's me…" I could see again. When I looked at them they looked a little bit more scared than I had anticipated but I went with it. "What do you guys think?" I spun around once to show them that I truly was an Irken. "I can't be making this up."

"That's for sure…" Ahva poked at my head again.

---------------------------------------

"Amazing!"

I stepped back a second, unable to comprehend what had just escaped Zim's mouth. Or whatever that thing he had plastered on his face was. The look that he had was unlike any that I had ever seen in the TV show. It was totally foreign to me.

"I never would have suspected that there could be another dimension prior to this one!"

"Yeah…" I said, tuning in with the mood. "The weird thing about this one is that Irkens don't exist. They're the created factor of a… uh… primitive human mind." I really disliked calling Jhonnen Vasquez primitive but I had no choice if I was going to blend in at being an Irken. "In the dimension I was in there's actually a TV series staring you. That's how I knew about Tak and everything. I've watched the series. And, in this dimension, cards are still handed out for Valentine's Day instead of meat. There is a place here called NASA place but in this dimension its just NASA. And there are a lot of dogs in this dimension."

---------------------------------------

"Yeah. So. What **did** happen that day? I mean… You just disappeared into thin air. I had no idea where you went. It was a little creepy, you know."

"Uh… I don't know what you're talking about."

Dib jumped in front of me, his hands on his hips. "I know that you know what happened. Even Zim had no idea."

"How do you know that he wasn't lying?"

"I had my lie detector on. It showed he was telling the truth when he said that he didn't know what had happened to you."

_Then why don't you just use it when he says that he's human? Duh!_ I ignored what he said, walked past him and then continued to the skool. Dib ran up beside me. He looked a little bit hurt. Still, although he wasn't my favorite character on the show I still liked him. I sighed and stopped. He did too. "The truth is Dib…" _I can't believe that I'm doing this…_ "I'm not from here…"

Dib's eyes went wide. He jumped back from me and pointed. "You're EB! You're that new Irken that moved in with Zim! I was right all along! You **are** an alien! You lied to me! You didn't want to be my friend! You wanted to gain my trust so that you could get rid of me!"

Now it was my turn to look hurt.

Dib's accusing finger fell.

-----------------------------------------------

She's back…

It wasn't fair. I only just got rid of her and now she was back. The real Brooke was out again.

My eyebrows went low and close to my nose. I glared at Dib for a moment and he flinched back so suddenly that he nearly fell out of his chair. I smiled. My glare was back. I could scare anybody with that stare of mine. I could make them feel so scared that they couldn't bear to look at me any longer. This was what kept me going.

I hated life again. And I liked it. I didn't care who thought that I was creepy. I didn't care who thought that I was nice. I didn't care who thought that I was ugly. I didn't care who thought that I was pretty. I didn't care for anything cute. I didn't care for anything fun. I didn't care for anything pleasant. And I, especially, didn't care for anything involving love.

Love. What a horrible emotion. In fact, emotions were horrible! They stank! They sucked! I hate them! I hate love! I hate sorrow! I hate happiness! I hate fear! All that remains in me now… is my anger… **All** of my anger. And I was going to use it to help Zim conquer the human race.

------------------------------------------------

"What's wrong?" I said with more hatred in my voice than anything before. "Nothing's wrong. Why do you ask?"

"Like I said. You were hostile all day. Even towards Zim."

"I'm mad. So what?"

"At Zim? Did Dib tell you about the noodles? I swear! I didn't do it! I'm innocent! They had no proof!"

"Noodles?"

"Uh… Never mind…"

-------------------------------------------------------

"Yeah but… OMG! What's happening?"

Zim looked down at his arm. He gasped at what was happening. A blue light was engulfing all up his arm. He couldn't feel it there but he could see it and it was unnerving. The light the stretched to his feet and soon went all the way up to his chest. It was only then did he realize what was happening to him. The Irken smiled at Dib in a manner so evil that the boy flinched back a little bit. "Looks I'll get to go to the dimension a little bit sooner than I first thought. I'll see you in a while Dib. But by then I'll have destroyed the world!" Zim started laughing again.

"Oh, no you don't!" Just before his other hand was engulfed by the blue light Dib held onto it and was engulfed as well. He felt very strange going through the portal.

---------------------------------------------------------

The girl looked at her shirt and then back at Dib. Her eyes went wide. She came up really close to him and eyed him for a moment. "What's your name?"

"What's yours?"

"Kim. Now answer my question."

"It's Dib… But why do you…"

"DIB!!"

She glomped him.

"Ah! Help! I'm being attacked!"

------------------------------------------------------------

"Exchange… student?"

"Did you forget? Don't you remember hat sheet I gave to you about three months ago? It was regarding the fact that exchange students were coming into our school for cultural enrichment. They're here to learn. You said that it would be all right if one stayed here seeing as there aren't enough places for them. Remember now?"

"Uh… vaguely…" I knew that she was lying. "Alright then…" My mom looked over at Zim. I saw her eyes go wide from behind her glasses. The color drained from her face and it sort of amused me. She took a gulp and addressed Zim. "Hello, what is your name?"

"Bonjour madame. Je m'appelle Zim."

"Oh! He's a French boy."

---------------------------------------------------

He stepped into the middle of the room and put his hands behind his back as he looked at the contents of the first shelf. EB wasn't with him anymore. She had gone to retrieve a spare mattress from the basement storage section. The Irken took a glance on what had been placed on the top shelf. He saw a series of hard covered books and a miniature wooden manikin. On the shelf below that was a dragon chest that looked to be made of stone and two little skeleton figures, one standing on a surfboard, the other sitting on a pirate chest holding a surfboard next to him. Zim took hold of the one sitting on the chest and examined it closely. "What a strange thing to put in a base…"

The head fell off.

"Eh?" Zim looked at the scull by his feet. The sockets were frowning at him at the angel it was at. He picked up the head and attempted to put it back on the body. But, alas, it fell off again and he was forced to hold it in his hand. Zim looked first at the head and then at the rest of the figure. He didn't know what to do. He tried to stick it on again but the head fell off and landed by his foot. The Irken frowned. "This stupid piece of human filth!"

"Ok, Zim. I got the mattress…" EB came into the room pulling a large white and blue thing. She leaned it against the left wall, right by the door, where a small insect collection hung. She whipped her forehead and then looked at him.

Zim looked down at the broken figure in his hands. "Uh…" He put it back on the shelf. "It was like this when I found it…" The head popped off again. Zim eyed it and then flicked it to the back of the shelf.

--------------------------------------------------------

I started to laugh. Rather wickedly I might add. My cackle resounded around the grassy area and stretched over to the parking lot. Teenagers were coming over in bulk now, interested in what was happening. I looked at the teens below me and I laughed even harder. I went hysterical with laughter even.

It felt so good. Oh so good.

I raised my foot above the head of the first boy that I had hurt. He was still on the ground. My smile went from ear to ear as I looked down at him, my eyes huge with a lust for pain… Blood even. I saw his eyes look up to me and my wickedness but I didn't stop. No. I wanted to strike him. "You had better stop bothering me. I don't know why you always did, nor do I give a crap. I know that you're annoying. That's all that I know."

"No. I promise that I won't bother you again."

My smile went even larger, which didn't seem physically possible. "Really? I don't believe you!" My foot went down.

------------------------------------------------

"You logged onto my user?!"

"No I didn't!"

"Yes you did!"

"No I didn't!"

"Yes you did!"

"Insolent fool girl!"

"Stupid invader!"

They went for each other's throats in anger.

----------------------------------------------

Kim sank to her knees; she had tears in her eyes. They were puffed up beyond belief and she looked really sad. "I'm sorry Dib. I'm not too good when it comes to cooking. It's actually really hard for me to do it. I've never been good at cooking." Kim put her head in her hands, sobbing slightly. "I'm sorry."

Now Dib felt really bad.

He took a look at the food.

He sighed. _My stomach's going to hate me for this…_

Kim raised her head out of her hands and looked up at Dib, her pain stained with tears. What she saw made her hands sink down low and her eyes open wide with amazement. Dib was scarfing down the food like there was no tomorrow. But with each bite she saw his eyes twitch and she thought that he would gag. Kim thrust her fists up to her chin and yelled, "Why are you eating it if it tastes so bad?"

He didn't answer, because his mouth was full of horrible, ash bacon, and just smiled at her.

---------------------------------------------------

Gir sank back into the closet. He started to sing a little tune. Zim hated him for it.

It went like this:

There you see her,

Sitting there across the way,

She don't got a lot to say,

But there's something about her,

And you don't know why,

You're dying to try,

You wanna kiss the girl.

----------------------------------------------------------

(Black words EB. Normal Brooke.)

_No chance, no way, I won't say it, no, no…._

**If there's a prize for misjudgment,**

**I guess I've already won that, **

**No man is worth the aggravation,**

**That's ancient history,**

**Been there, done that!**

_Who you think you're kidding?_

_He's the Earth and heaven to you,_

_Try to keep it hidden,_

_Honey I can see right through you,_

_Girl, you can't conceal it,_

_I know how you're feeling,_

_Who you're thinking of…_

**No chance, no way,**

**I won't say it, no, no!**

_You swoon, you sigh, _

_Why deny it, uh oh,_

**It's too cliché!**

**I won't say I'm in love…**

_Shoo do. Shoo do…_

------------------------------------------------------------

Bill looked at Zim. "Can you talk to me, please?"

"Where is EB?"

"What?"

"EB. The girl that answered the door. I demand that you tell me where she is."

"Why don't you tell me your name first?"

"I am **ZIM**. Mighty Invader of the Irken Empire. Now tell me what you have done with my assistant or suffer for your fool heartedness."

"She's right outside. Uh… EB is in good hands. You don't have to worry about her. Are you related to her?"

"Of course not."

"Are you friends?"

"No."

"Then are you in love?"

Zim turned pale again. "**Why must everyone ask that?**" He could feel his PAK reacting to how mad he was feeling. His instincts took over and his spider legs were activated. They came out of the PAK, slowly. He wasn't exactly sure what he was going to do with them yet. "I am not in love with EB!"

------------------------------------------------------------------

He put his other hand on her forehead and tapped it lightly, making sure that he didn't touch the wounds. Zim was choking on tears now. He tapped her head a little bit more. "EB, you must speak to Zim. I have commanded you to. Speak Dammit! Speak!!"

"Zim…"

His head rose up. He stared into EB's eyes. Though her human guise was back she still had her Irken eyes. She still looked as much an Irken to him as she had before. He could still see it in her eyes. They were black as the night with the two patches of gray like they had before. "EB?"

She took hold of his hand and he could see tears streaming from her face. She was in so much pain right then and there. But, yet, she was able to hold it back and talk to him. It melted his cold heart. "Zim… Conquer Earth for me…"

He nodded lightly, tears in his eyes.

"And don't cry for me… I don't want that… Pity's a waste of time…"

He nodded once more, smiling slightly as he whipped away tears.

EB's hand went limp in his.

--------------------------------------------------------

Zim floated through a stream of time and space as he headed towards his dimension. Traveling through the rift like this was near an eternity. But it seemed to pass him by so quickly.

He sighed.

Seeing Brooke go like that was horrible on his mind.

He was already missing her company.

A streak of black, red and purple swooped past his head. He spun around in surprise. As he tried to steady himself Zim could hear a strangely familiar voice erupt from the streak as it hurried down the tunnel.

"Race you to the other side, Zim!"

He didn't hurry along.

The longer he was quiet the more he was able to think about forgetting the pain. The easier it was to avoid pitying Brooke's demise.

The streak of black, red and purple stopped after it realized that he was not following. It turned back to see him, slowly approaching the end of the time space stream. The light was right in front of the color streak now and it was ready to pass on through. The fact that Zim was being so slow didn't help in its mind. The streak, though without any body parts, shrugged and dove into the light.

It waited for Zim to come with it.

But he never came.

And the streak was driven into a different part of the dimension, far off from where it had wanted to be.

One word escaped its mouth.

"Damn…"

----------------------------------------------------------

Kim: A little recap just in case someone hasn't read the first story. Then again, I suggest you do.

Brooke: I don't see what effort you put into this.

Kim: How so?

Brooke: All you did was copy and paste little pieces from each chapter in the first story!

Kim: Yeah so?

Brooke: (Slaps forehead.)


	2. Timedimension warp

Kim: Sneak Peek! Brooke's going to write this chapter and E-mail it to me. Sort of like a window into how she writes. I'm only doing this, though, because I've written this chapter about 6 times now and I can't get it right. I'm not happy with anything that comes out of it. So Brooke is doing this one.

Be warned, she wrote this at 4:00 in the morning on a Tuesday so she's not at her best…

Brooke: Plus I'm f-cking hungry.

Kim: That too…

Chapter 1

The cold, clammy surrounding of the time lapse left her with a chilled tail and the thoughts of home coursing through her mind. Dark and tempestuous was the world that enveloped around her form, coursing through each particle as though each were one and everything with the universe.

Inflections of the surrounding thunder constantly sent hard vibrations towards her, not necessarily to her ear, for it was no longer existent. Bright flashes of lighting struck through the night, the chambers of the heavens above became known to the rest of the rhyme that sat within her temple.

It was at that moment,

I was someone else,

My life turned on me,

And I fell,

My mind a scattered dream,

My life a broken mind,

A promise to stay,

Blessed by heart unkind,

That illustrious figure,

Keeping to mon _tete,_

Though his face is sweet,

The thought is a threat…

Conflagrations struck through the mind while passing through a time-dimension warp. The entire process was constantly an eluded one, painful and filled to the brim with sorrowfulness of the heart. Sensitivity became naught but a dream and the kindness, once known by the victim, is swept into a sea of distress, never to be released again.

A life taken is a life given.

A mind taken is nothing.

Love dwindles within the darkness but, if never to be admitted, it takes an affect on the mind that holds it within. Its carrier is struck with the sensations of pain and is thrust forwards into a life of illusions and faded memories.

It is love that brings forth the happiness and destroys the evil.

Then again, evil cannot be destroyed if it is the essence of a life.

For hers it was.

As the mind wanders the stream it's bare form is encased with that of memory. If the memory is tampered with so can the form be. But, to avoid such a tremendous lapse in life, love comes to mind and the form that was seen by the loved one shows up in the heart, eliminating horrible thoughts that worried the temples.

Eyelids closed over the black of the night and stayed quiet as the form of life was taken into account across her body. She was nearing her destination, her body growing ever more in form. The emerald of her covering weakened and her undressed body was slowly encased with the clothes that had once been left behind. Though blood once stained the mind, the hair and the garments, it was pushed aside as though there had never been any. Tears that had blemished a comprehensible facade streamed off and were lost in a gorge of darkness that closed in slowly.

Sitting there, across the way, was the face of one missed so by a victim of death.

It was a calm one, ready to be touched by love.

The fact that it was so emotionless was a terrible sigh to behold.

The image was pushed aside and as the mind wandered through the times, encased in a thin, weak body, a new image formed and closed around.

Vines and trees and amazingly clear waters that showed sea life at the base and nearing the top of the water. The body landed, quietly, on a surface of plain wood. Fear was detectable, though calmed and quiet, it was there nonetheless. Black eyes wandering searched the bottom of the lagoon, looking for the beauty that was to be found in this image. But the calm, tranquil, loveliness that was about the scene was not to be found when the search of the area was complete.

No, it was time to give up. The time that was around was gone and the area was the last of the ones she was able to visit. The love that had been longed for had not been found and the slow churning of the tides helped less and less in the attempt to calm the stirring mind. Love can only be found in the images of life that were or the life would never return. A mind would, for an eternity, meander around the verses that came from the living and then, when there was nothing left to see, it would dwindle out like a dying candle. Soon there would be nothing left. There was no second chance. Love was to be found or life was to be forfeited.

She cried her heart out.

It was no use.

"What's wrong?"

Her mind was focused back to life by the sudden voice that erupted through her eternal stroll. Her head turned slightly, eyes catching sight of ores. The wooden surface that she sat on was nothing more than a boat and the lagoon beneath her was not just there but all around, ready to swallow her up had she fallen in. The face that was there, so calm and kind, was that of her dreams. That mind that she had so missed and that face that she had so longed to feel against her cold skin.

She outstretched a cool hand towards the tinted green. It was such a lovely shade. So full of pleasant thoughts and wishful tremors of fear. Fear was a key subject here and she could see the sweat that poured down the façade of the one she had so longed to see once more.

"You're scared?" her voice was softer than she had thought it could have been. Though it sounded harsh it seemed sweet, sincere, as though it was that of someone who had enjoyed a playful night with someone and was finally ready to say good night. The lagoon added to the cool of her voice, seeping its majesty into her tones.

"Yes. A little bit. Water makes me uneasy."

"I see…" a finger rubbed her chin. It was her own. She did so in thought. Her head turned up again, eyes so black staring into eyes of blood. "Maybe this will help." Her hand reached out the final few inches to the tinted emerald before her hand.

The countenance showed a smile before casting her forwards and thrusting her mind back into the darkness. But this time she emerged. She was able to make it out of the blackness of the time and dimensions around her. Minds converging to one gave power to the one that had passed the test. And she was able to emerge from her cocoon as a beautiful butterfly, so to speak.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Kim: Wtf?

Brooke: Philistine…

Kim: Again… wtf?


	3. The school dance news

Kim: Back to my pathetic writing. Oh well. Enjoy or I'll send Brooke after you!

Chapter 2

Kids all over the classroom were talking and chatting intently. Though it seemed near impossible, Ms. Bitters had actually left the classroom for a period of time. The kids were all hyper now, bouncing off of walls, literally. Throwing chairs at each other, literally. Tearing desks to pieces, literally. Using Ms. Bitters' desk as firewood, literally. It was a complete jungle in that classroom the minute she had set foot in the hallway. Once that teacher had left those kids alone everything was amiss.

But that all changed the second she came back.

The eerie teacher, in her black dressed, carrying her ugly, wrinkled mug of a face, stepped into the room. Her back was slightly more hunched than usual and she looked utterly infuriated. As to why this was remained a mystery but she still scared the poo out of every child that was in that room and was not seated at their desks.

For this it was every child except for two.

The first child was a boy named Dib. He was known to have a large head, no matter how many times he protested that remark, and he was also well known for being a paranoid, insane, freaky, crazy, maniac. That was another thing that he happened to protest to a lot, especially as of late, seeing as he had lost a good friend to him and was having a little bit of trouble coping with the loss. Currently he was dressed in his usual attire, his black jacket and black pants with his blue shirt with the smiley face on the stomach. His boots were plain black and he had a pair of large glasses on his face so that he could see. His black hair was spread over his large head and what was left over stood up in a big spike that went all the way to the back of his head, maybe a little bit past there.

The second child was also a boy. He wasn't like most of the children in the room. The colors of skin for those children were black, brown, white and yellow. But his skin added an entirely different color to the mix. This boy's name was Zim. He had a skin condition that turned his color a pale green and made it so that he had no ears. Zim wore his black hair in a 70s style haircut. He had blue eyes and always wore the same thing, a long red shirt that went a little bit past the line of his black pants. He always wore black gloves and thick black boots. Save for his skin condition he was a normal kid as far as anything went.

Nah, just yanking your chain.

In fact, Zim wasn't even human at all. Not in the least. He was an Irken invader who was 'sent' on a 'secret mission' to destroy the Earth. He's green because that's the color of his species and the outfit that he always wears is a standard Irken uniform, which means everyone wears one. Underneath his blue, human contacts were his red eyes and under his black wig were two antennas. It was because he had antennas that he didn't have any ears. He wears a PAK on his back that controls his emotions, or at least distracting ones like love. (Kim: But going to mess with that… Haha!)

Anyways, moving back to the story.

Zim had been relatively quiet during the past month. Dib was starting to suspect that he was in a slump and couldn't think of any new ideas to take over the human race. He was sort of glad for this but was still watching him a lot. The truth was Zim had forgotten about conquering Earth for a while. Despite what he had promised he found that his thoughts continuously moved back to his late friend.

Brooke, or, like she had preferred to be known as, EB, had passed away in a car accident about a month ago. They had been on a trip to the alternate dimension that she had come from. Apparently, in that dimension, Invader Zim had been the star in a TV show! Can you believe that? Anyways, she had made him promise to conquer Earth for her and not to think about her too much. But he really couldn't help it and he didn't know why.

Even though he had found out that she had been a human all the time he still couldn't stop thinking about her death. He still felt like she was an Irken, no matter how many times he looked at it.

Again, moving back to the story.

Ms. Bitters snarled at the miscreants in the classroom. "Sit down class!" She looked at the dented wall, the misplaced chairs, the torn desks and her burning teacher's desk. Ms. Bitters growled slowly in her throat and turned to Dib, one of the two boys who had been good. She pointed a finger to him. "Dib, you'll be cleaning the classroom up after school today."

"But I didn't do anything. Wouldn't make more sense to have one of the kids that actually contributed to making the mess do it?"

"No."

Dib sank in his seat and crossed his arms.

Zim started to laugh a little bit. Ms. Bitters turned to him, a glare resting upon his emerald skin. "Do you find something amusing, Zim?"

He sat up straight. "No, ma'am. Nothing at all."

Ms. Bitters lasted one more growl then she crossed to where her desk had been. She sat down in the chair, seeing as it was bolted to the floor and no child had been able to move it. Then she put her arms up and rested her chin on her knuckles like she would have had her desk actually been there. She sighed and then said, with a lot of anger in her voice, "due to the drop in test scores over the past month a recreational activity for all students to participate in will commence within one week. This is in hopes that with your spirits raised in false hope you will, once more, be able to work back up to the moderately ridiculous failures that you were instead of the complete bums that you are right now."

Once she said 'recreational activity for all students to participate in' they were wrapped around every word that she said. Even Zim raised a brow to what his teacher was saying.

"The recreational activity that will commence is…"

The kids leaned in closer in their seats.

Dib listened intently.

Zim turned his head.

They hung on each word for dear life!

"A school dance."

The kids burst out in joy. They thrashed about the room, tearing at their hair, running over what rubble was left of the desks, and crashing into one another. Even when they fell they found themselves laughing with happiness. They went hysteric with theatrics.

Dib was no longer interested in what she had to say. He was aware that he would either not be able to get a date in time for the dance or would be paired up with a girl that didn't like him. These were the only options because, as far as he knew, no girl liked him. There had been Kim when he ventured to the alternate dimension with Zim and Brooke but he knew that he wouldn't ever see her again so he knew he'd have to get over that kiss…

Some day…

Zim sighed and slammed his head onto his desk. The last thing that he wanted to do was a social event with a bunch of foolish humans. Being around them gave him a headache but being stuck in a gymnasium with them for a long period of time would just be torture. Worst of all, he would probably have to dance with a partner that he would have to select, would select him or would be chosen for him. He didn't feel like that…

Ms. Bitters stood up. "Each student will be required to bring a date to the dance. If you cannot acquire a date one will be chosen for you. If there are no more children available then you will go with a teacher."

Dib raised his hand. "Ma'am. Isn't that a bit cynical?"

"All the more reason for you to get a date as quickly as you can."

Gretchen, a brace-faced girl with purple hair that she wore in three pigtails, walked up to Dib by instinct. She had on her usual orange and purple striped dress on with the fluffy trim around the shoulders. She smiled at Dib, all of her freakishly large braces showing. "H-Hi… W-w-w-would y-y-you l-l-like t-t-t-t-t-to g-go t-t-to…"

Dib sighed. "Sure…"

Gretchen squealed with delight and went to tell her other reject friends about her date with Dib. To her he was the hottest guy ever.

(Kim: wha! She stole my Dibby-chan!)

Zim sighed. "Zim will not participate in such a trivial human activity."

Ms. Bitters slithered over. "Then you will have a partner picked for you."

"Never! Zim will not attend this 'school dance'!"

The door to the classroom swung open.

All eyes landed on the child that stood there.

The child there was a girl. She had long, wavy brown hair that came down to the base of her spine and covered most of her face. Her earrings were of scull and crossbones on top of metal crosses and she had eyes brown like her hair. She was sort of short but skinny and broad chested at the same time. She had thick metal boots on, metal stripes moving over the front zippers of the left one, and thick metal coating around the toe of the right one. Her t-shirt was plain black, save for the white scull and the two blue wings that sat behind it. She had a pair of jeans on that were ripped at the knees. There was a piece sign stitched into the left thigh and the kids happened to know that the word 'varsity' was stitched on the bottom. There was a black thread wrapped around the girl's neck with a coffin at the end. When it jingled a skeleton was visible on the inside. She had a silver blackjack on with three black circles and she had a blue and gray striped sweater wrapped around her waist.

Everyone froze.

Dib's jaw dropped.

Zim's eyes went wide.

An eerie silence fell down.

The girl eyed everyone in the room with a severe glare. She looked over to a seat that was next to Dib. She frowned when she saw a boy sitting there. At the sight of her stare he leapt out of that seat quick as a rabbit and she was able to cross to it and sit down as though it were her own. She put her feet up on her desk and leaned back, keeping enough balance so that she didn't fall over and smash her head on the tiles.

Kita leaned in to where Zim's ear should have been. "I thought that you and Dib said that she was dead."

Zim didn't speak. Instead, he walked over to the girl at the desk and just stood there. At first she had her eyes closed and she didn't exactly notice him standing there. He watched her rock back and forth a few times and then sit up and pull some paper and a pencil and eraser out of her PAK. IT was at that time that she noticed Zim standing there.

She smiled. "Morning Zim."

"EB?"

"The one and only."

His mind went black. "When? How?"

"How what?"

"How'd you survive?"

"Survive what?"

"The car crash! You were in a crash! I saw you bleed to death! How'd you survive?"

EB raised a brow to him. She stood up and leaned over, putting a hand on his forehead. She felt it for a second. Zim didn't even pull away; he liked the feel of her smooth skin against his. She rubbed her chin in thought. "No fever. Are you feeling ok Zim?"

"What do you am I feeling ok? I haven't seen you for a month because I thought that you were dead. Now you show up alive? I'm incredibly happy!"

"A month? What are you talking about? I was here yesterday. Wasn't I?" He didn't answer her. EB's eyes went wide. "**Wasn't I, Zim?**"

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kim: I think something went wrong! Whoops!

Brooke: No duh.

Kim: Review peoples or feel my wrath! I'll send Brooke after you! You'll be in your room tonight, thinking that you're all safe and stuff but them she'll be there in the corner… doing stuff…

Brooke: You already used that insult you idiot!


	4. FOODFIGHT!

Chapter 3

"A month? I've been gone an entire month? Well, what's been going on? How's my family been without me? All the school that I missed, everything that I left behind, my friends. How is everything in my dimension?"

"I haven't been able to get back there ever since… well… your death."

"I'm not dead!"

"I heard you the first 12 times." Zim stirred the peas on his plate. He sighed and put the spork down, turning back to his ex-assistant. Seeing her alive was a strange thing and he felt stranger being around her. It was sort of like talking to a corpse. It was a strange but fun feeling. Like he was doing something amazing and then something completely wrong at the same time. "And do not yell at Zim."

"I've been meaning to ask you this for a while, what's with all the OCness?"

"O…C… ness?"

"I'm asking you why is it that whenever you're around me you don't act normal. I watch you talk to other people and you're all self-confident and your mind is so full of yourself that people want to strangle you or freaking stab you. Then, whenever you get close to me, you get really out of character and you don't act like yourself."

"Name one time that happened!"

"The day that I died! You freaking cried Zim! You cried! That's just pathetic…"

"Do not call Zim pathetic!"

"I'll call you whatever I want to!"

"Insolent human!"

"Troublesome Irken!"

"Impertinent pig-smelly!"

"Disrespectful lizard!"

"Short-tempered zombie!"

"Repulsive cretin!"

"I'll show you to be disrespectful of Zim!" He took hold of his spork and thrust it into his peas. Then Zim flung the small, edible orbs at Brooke.

She dodged out of the way by merely ducking her head down and turned to watch as the peas flew across the room and struck Kita in the face. Brooke giggled a little bit. Her giggling stopped when Kita yelled out a single word that sent a shiver down her spine.

"Food fight!"

Brooke had never really been in a food fight before. She's seen them from outside of the cafeteria once or twice but they were much harder to stark up in her dimension than they were in Zim's. Partially because the children from her dimension were always more cautious so that they didn't get in trouble. The schools that she had gone to had had pretty harsh punishments. For instance, one time Brooke corrected her teacher, got scolded and then had to stay inside. It wasn't like that for each teacher but the punishments were near the same and just as ridiculous for the most ridiculous crimes.

Brooke ducked under the table, pulling Zim to the floor in the process. The Irken didn't even fight. They sat, back-to-back, caught in the crossfire of the fight. It was a horrifying and revolting sight watching all of those children throw food and act like… children! Brooke had to suppress a gag as some of the cafeteria hit the floor and then started to crawl away using a fork.

She heard Zim squeak with surprise as a pile of mashed potatoes came close to hitting him. The last thing he needed was for mashed potatoes falling into his eyes. He wouldn't be able to go to school for a while if that happened. Zim backed up as far as he could, sort of pushing Brooke out from under the table. He didn't even realize what it was that he had done until it was too late.

Brooke was pushed out into the crossfire of food and wasn't able to make it back in before a glob of meat was sent towards her. She ended up having to run out of the way to avoid it. Carefully she did a series of acrobatics to avoid the food that came from all around her. She dove under a table where the boy with the webbed toes was.

He looked at her, his brows raised.

"What to see my--?"

"No."

She poked her head out. The boy was staring at her and it made her uneasy. Brooke took hold of his collar and pushed him out of the hole to his mashed potatoed doom. She watched him run around the hall until the potatoes got him in the eyes. The scream that came next made the hair on the back of her neck stand up and it made her feel so good at the same time.

_Scream! Scream! Scream! Scream! Scream! Scream! Scream! **Scream!**_

EB ducked out from the table. She clicked a button on her wrist transistor and waited as a black glove illuminated its way onto either one of her hands. She pulled them up high and picked up the potatoes off of the boy's face as she ran past. The next thing she realized she was on one of the tables close to the cafeteria serving spot and was throwing the potatoes like there was no tomorrow. She ducked out of the way as peas came for her and grabbed some cookies as they flew past her head. EB thrust them back with so much force that the children she hit were sent flying into the wall.

She continued on this method as she thrust food at each and every kid in that room. She stopped herself just before she hit Zim climbing out from under the table.

EB looked at the damage that she had done to the cafeteria in her fit of rage. It was a good amount. There were children sticking to the walls and some were writhing on the floor as the food seep past their eyes and into their brains! She smiled with delight and turned around.

The sight she saw surprised her.

Willy stood up from behind the countertop, a slab of bologna in his fat hand. He grinned in his stupid way as he looked for a target to throw his weapon of mass destruction at. Instantly, his eye fell on the girl standing on the table in front of him. Willy pulled his hand backwards, ready to throw it.

_I'm outta here!_

_What?!_

Willy threw the bologna right at Brooke's head. It struck on precision, just close to the hairline on the right side of her head. She fell backwards and hit the floor hard. Her PAK made the impact hurt all the more and the fact that it was Willy that had struck her down after such a good fight really diminished her dignity. She lay there on the floor for a second, trying hard to process what had just happened.

It was at that time she noticed a sharp pain in her temple. It started out large and grew even larger! Brooke sat up and rolled along the floor, her hair stood up straight as she screamed. "The meat! Ah! The horrible meat! Holy shit, I sound like Zim!" She lay there on the ground, twitching from the intense pain that swelled up in her head. Luckily for Brooke she had a very high tolerance for pain. It could have hurt her an awful lot more had she had normal tolerance like a lot of her friends, or Carden. LOL.

Zim walked up and stood above Brooke, his hands behind his back, his brows lowered in thought. "Curious…"

Brooke twitched in response to his word. She eyed him, not moving her head. "What are you staring at?"

"This may be a bad time to ask but would you like to go to the school dance with me?"

The pain was too much for her head and caused a series of tremors in her brain that forced out a bunch of grunts and hums. Brooke didn't really answer but Zim smiled at it nonetheless.

"I'll take that as a yes."

Then he scurried off before Ms. Bitters ended up in the room. When she did everyone pointed to Dib. Save for Brooke, who was just leaving the room, her hair covering so much of her face it was a surprise she didn't crash into the poles that littered the hallways.

-------------------------------------------

Kim: Aw! Zim asked you out!

Brooke: You wrote that.

Kim: Aren't you a little bit happy?

Brooke: No.

Kim: Emo…

Brooke: **what the fuck did you say?!**


	5. Reflections

Chapter 4

The mirror stood right in front of her. The glimmering surface reflecting the room that she had been given was so strange and yet so hypnotizing. It was amazing what a single piece of reflective glass could do to a girl under the pressure of emotions.

She looked at her reflection in the mirror.

Her hair was all in her face, as usual, and her shoulders drooped more so than they had ever done before. It was strange to see herself in such a weird state. The sparking glint that had once been in her eyes were missing and she was frazzled and dazzled beyond belief.

"You see what this has done to you…?" she wasn't speaking to anyone in particular. In fact, she thought, for a moment, that the mirror could be considered as her other half. Her nicer half was right there in front of her and she was speaking to it. Of course, though, it was only a mirror. Brooke sighed and hung her head. "You see what emotions can do? This isn't a way to live…"

Her fingers tapped over the keypad of her wrist transistor. She hesitated a moment and then clicked the buttons.

Brooke's Irken form popped up in the mirror. The usually attire was draped over her body. A black Irken uniform was thick red stripes down the front and going all around. Her boots stayed the same, maybe thickening around the feet and lessening at the ankles with her lack of arthritis now. (They were swollen) Her brown hair faded out to be replaced by two black antennas that sat flat on her green head.

EB tapped the mirror in delight. "I can take over for now. Emotions, frankly, are useless. It's pitiful to try and deal with them. I'll be much better just to get rid of--…"

The doorbell rang out.

Her form reverted back to normal.

"I'll get it!"

Brooke hurried out of the room, leaving the mirror in her room, her remaining reflection glaring back at her from its enclosed surroundings.


	6. You gonna dance like a monkey?

Chapter 5

Dib stood outside of the door to Zim's house. He tapped his foot impatiently. Frankly, he wasn't surprised that it was taking so long for someone to answer the door, especially at this time in the morning. But he needed to see how it was possible for someone who he had seen die with his own eyes to come back from the dead. It wasn't likely!

Plus… He had a little something to ask…

Dib mentally prayed that no one had done so already…

There was a clicking sound as the door handle was turned. The sweat poured down his face as he waited for the door to open up and show the face of the person that he needed to see. He could feel his fists clench around the slushy in his hand. It was close to popping the lid when he relaxed as the door swung open.

Brooke stood there, her normal pose worn brilliantly. Her hair looked like it had just been washed and so it glistened in the light that came from the rising sun. Dib stood there, lost for words. His mouth fell open and his slushy was dropped from his grasp. Of course Gir was there to zip underneath and catch it before it hit. Brooke turned around to watch the happy robot sip away, get brain freeze, and spit it up again. Then she turned back to Dib's gaping mouth.

She put her hands on her hips and slanted his way a little bit. One eyebrow was raised to him and her mouth was cringing slightly at the top. She glared Dib in the eye for a moment. Then she leaned back and smiled. "Morning Dib. What brings you here so early? It **is** a Saturday you know. Shouldn't you be sleeping in?"

"Huh?"

"You're standing on the doorstep with the stupidest grin that I've ever seen…"

"Wha-?" Dib wiped away at the droll that had sort of leaked from the corner of his mouth.

Brooke laughed a little bit. She went back to her pose, her arms hanging, her legs apart and her body forwards slightly. When you looked at it the thought of Tak could come to you. Brooke's pose sort of looked like hers. LOL. Anyways. She put her thumb just underneath her bottom lip and her first finger under her nose. "I'd usually let you in but… You know how Zim feels about you."

"Uh… Right. Right. Zim."

Brooke's brow rose again. "You didn't come for Zim?"

"I never said that I didn't."

"You never said that you did either."

His face went blank. Quickly he thought of the first thing that he could. One thing popped into his head and, even though it was completely dumb, he said it. "Uh… Your hair's wet." He mentally slapped himself for that. Not only was it stupid but also it made him feel like a total idiot for saying it.

Brooke raised a brow at him. "Yes… so it is…"

Dib hesitated. He scratched his arm a bit, trying to remember why he had actually come to Zim's house. It had been something important, he knew that much. But what had it been? What? It hit him. "Uh, Brooke. How is it possible for you to come back to life?"

"Are you unhappy that I did?"

"What? No! No, it's just that I saw you die right there in the car seat. I just find it a little bit odd that you were able to come back like that. It was a little bit strange. You're human after all. When a human dies they die."

"Yeah…" Brooke shrugged. "I dunno, maybe I got lucky. All I remember is traveling through this really long, colourful tunnel and then I ended up back here. I realised that I was late for school and so I hurried to school. Anything else that you need to know? I'm all ears right now."

"Uh… Yeah. There is one thing that I wanted to ask you."

"Ok, what?"

"Would you… like to… maybe… go--?"

"No!"

Dib was tackled to the ground before he could even finish his sentence. Gretchen was on top of him, wearing a pink nightgown. She held him to the grass as he struggled to get back up. She didn't let him go as she stared at Brooke's surprised face. Brooke's eyes were wide open with confusion and surprise as she stared down at the brace-faced girl. Gretchen stared back at her, her eyes piercing Brooke's, but not really, Brooke just made it look like that.

Gretchen stood, holding Dib's jacket collar in her hand. She was surprisingly strong; then again, any girl in love was strong. She wagged her fist at Brooke and lowered her eyes. "He's mine, you hear? Dib's taking **me** to the dance. Not you. Me. Come on Dib." Then she walked down the pathway, still holding Dib's collar as he struggled to stand up.

Brooke lowered one brow at the girl as she walked out of the cul-de-sac and continued down the street. Dib was still being dragged when they passed over the hill but he had stopped in his struggle and was just looking defeated.

The girl in the glowing house shrugged her shoulders and closed the door. Once she had though she sat down and leaned against the purple frame. Brooke sighed and put her elbows on her knees. She really didn't like to lie to Dib like that but she didn't really think that he would have believed her had she told him how she actually got there. Then again, maybe he would have.

But she decided to keep it a secret nonetheless.

Gir was sitting on the ground in front of her when she looked up. He had the slushy next to him and was smiling, the red, melting fluid dripping from his mouth. Brooke smiled at him and then stood up. She was about to leave the room when Gir pulled on her sweater. He nearly pulled it off, in fact.

Brooke turned around and tied her sweater tighter as the robot stared at her. "Yes?"

"You going to dance like a monkey?"

"If you're asking whether I'm going to the dance or not then yes. But I won't be dancing like a monkey."

"Don't you need something nice?"

"N-Nice?"

"Nice!"

Gir grabbed Brooke's hand and pulled her out the door. "Nice! Nice! Nice! Nice! Nice! Nice! Nice!" Brooke struggled against his grip but, seeing as he was a robot, she had no chance. She tried to hold onto the doorframe but one of the robot parents came up and smiled at her. It was the mom.

A while ago Zim had programmed the mom to think that Brooke was his sister. But that hadn't proved a very good thing. When it had come down to getting clean after a day of soccer the robot parents had suggested that the kids take a nice, warm bath together. Of course that hadn't happened. Zim had made them think that she was just a really good friend that was living there for a while.

The robot mother smiled at Brooke. "Aw! Are you going to get a dress for the dance? Let me help you with that!" She rested her cold, robotic hand on Brooke's pale, human ones.

"No!"

The robot mom ripped her hands off the doorframe and Brooke went soaring down the street. Gir was running as fast as he could, putting his costume on as he went. Brooke swore all the way to the mall, constantly kicking at the robot/dog and screaming with all of her might.

The parents stood in the doorway, their hands together. "Aw, that's so sweet."

"Isn't it though?"

---

Kim:hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahaha

Brooke: Shut the fuck up you pris…


	7. Brooke's past life

Chapter 6

"Something nice! Nice! Nice! Nice! Going to get something nice for the pretty girl!" Gir hurried through the mall, his captive's hand bound with his leash. The little 'dog' went from one store to the other, searching for pretty clothes for the girl behind him. However, her constant kicking was making it quite difficult for him to move about the mall fast. She pulled hard, struggling the entire time.

"Gir! Let me go! I don't want anything that's nice! I **HATE** nice!"

"You gotta get something nice!" He stooped, Brooke nearly crashing into him. Gir looked over the stores in the area. He tried to find one that looked as though it would have something nice for her. All the while he kept muttering, "something nice, something nice, something nice… something nice for the pretty girl…"

Brooke began to gnaw at the thin wire of the leash. Though normal humans wouldn't have been able to cut through wire with their bare teeth she was. Brooke had practiced most of her life, chewing of the ends of paperclips and hairpieces. (Kim: It's true, I've seen her do it before!) She hurriedly shook the wire form her hand and watched with a smile as it fell to the ground.

Just as it landed Brooke made herself ready to make a run for it. But a small, black paw snagged her sweater. Brooke stopped and fastened it tightly again. "Geez, I should staple this to my shirt or something at this rate." She looked down at the paw that had grabbed at her. Gir's head was down. Brooke leaned over slightly. "Hey… Hey, Gir? Are you ok?"

He raised his head, tears in his big eyes.

Brooke stepped back quick like a rabbit.

It was a teary moment, the horror!

Gir stared up at her. He stifled a little sniffle as he did so. "Why? Why don't you want to get something pretty? A pretty girl needs something pretty…" Broke didn't think that that sounded like Gir at all. "If a pretty girl doesn't have something pretty she turns into a monkey with bad foot odor."

Now that was Gir.

Brooke looked down at him, thinking this over. She stood there, her legs tightly together, one elbow resting in her hand so that she could rub her chin. Brooke glanced back down at the dog and his watery eyes. She sighed as he repeated his question to her. Over and over again he asked the same thing.

"Why? Why don't you want to get something pretty? A pretty girl needs something pretty… Why? Why don't you want to get something pretty? A pretty girl needs something pretty… Why? Why don't you want to get something pretty? A pretty girl needs something pretty… Why? Why don't you want to get something pretty? A pretty girl needs something pretty… Why? Why don't you want to get something pretty? A pretty girl needs something pretty… Why? Why don't you want to get something pretty? A pretty girl needs something pretty… Why? Why don't you want to get something pretty? A pretty girl needs something pretty… Why? Why don't you want to get something pretty? A pretty girl needs something pretty… Why? Why don't you want to get something pretty? A pretty girl needs something pretty…"

-------------------------------------------------------------

Kim: Yes, I stole this thing from one of EB's stories. Sure me. She's my friend! Plus she said that I could!

Brooke: No I didn't…

Kim: Silence!

--------------------------------------------------------------

Brooke held her head as she looked at the robot. That one this that he continuously asked kept going through her mind. She couldn't get rid of it. It was everywhere in her head. Ringing out high and staying low in her mind. Finally, after trying to resist the question as best as she could, Brooke caved and called her answer right through the mall. This stopped many people in their tracks.

"**Because I'm not pretty!**"

Gir stopped dead. That was one answer that he had not been expecting. He was completely surprised and stunned at what had escaped the girl's mouth.

People in the area stopped in their tracks. They looked the girl in the mall, her hair all in front of her face. Her sudden outburst had startled most of them. It was the most eventful thing since that Santa Clause disappearing right in front of their eyes. Someone had kept claiming to have seen a man swallow him up through a second mouth in his belly! But that man was quickly locked away in an institute for his lack of sanity.

When the girl didn't do anything else that was worth watching the people continued. They paid little attention to her as she sank to her knees and hung her head so low that not even her nose could have been seen under her long bangs.

Gir watched as Brooke sank to the ground. She had her knees out in front of her and her feet behind her. She was sitting on her bottom with her hands rested between her legs. Brooke had her shoulders hunched and each time Gir approached her to see her face she turned away and hid behind her hair. He had to admit though; hiding behind your hair was a really good place to hide. If he had some he thought he might try it the next time his master was mad at him.

The little robot/dog placed his paw on Brooke's knee. Needless to say his OCness towards her made her raise her head. In a situation like this Brooke suspected that Gir might start dancing or run into the nearest toy store and eat al the toy robots to prove that he was the one and only Gir. But no, instead he was comforting her?

Gir?

Impossible!

Brooke looked at the little, green dog. She hadn't been crying but she felt like she was close to tears. Hurriedly she blinked a few times and thought of good things; zombies; mummies; death; blood; horror movies; Freddie Kruger; knives; graveyards; skeletons; ghosts; witchcraft; curses… Ok… She was fine now. She sighed and looked at Gir to see what he had to say.

When he saw her face Gir spoke. "Why does you not think you're pretty?"

"Well, you sort of force yourself into that state of mind when you go through a life like mine…"

Gir put his hand at his side and fell onto his bottom. It was obvious that the little guy was eager to hear more about what she was talking about. Really, Brooke didn't want to talk about it but she figured that, even if she didn't want to she should. One of her favorite teachers from the 8th grade had always told her that she should talk about things like that. Mr. McGill was the only one that she had ever actually opened up to. Now, Gir would be the second.

"You see, when you never have a real date and you never have a real boyfriend you sort of start to think that… you know… Sure, I had a crush on a few boys in lesser grades. But then there came that one boy in grade three…" Brooke felt her hand clench at her side as she though about him. "Well, let's just say that when your heart is broken once you never want it to happen again. So, that day I changed permanently and I became what I had been until I was introduced to that horrible Purple dinosaur…"

"What was his name?"

"Dylan… Ugh… I **still** go to school with that freak. I don't like him anymore though… The basterd…"

"Huh! You said a bad word! No bad words!"

"Right, right. Sorry. I forgot this was a kid's show. Anyways, ever since that day I've practically hated everyone. It's been hard for me to make friends and because of that I've gotten a lot of pity in the past. Of course I hate pity but what are you going to do? You get one thing and you have to deal with another. Needless to say I got the respect that I'd always wanted. Mostly it was for the fact that I became a bully again."

She sighed.

"And then high school came. I'm not feared anymore because people now know that I have a nicer side. And I **hate** it!"

EB slammed her fists onto the floor around her. The tiles cracked and she looked down at her bloodied hand. EB looked just as surprised as Gir, who stood up and picked away at pieces of the tile. He opened his costume and stored them in his head for a special occasion.

"Oops…"

Gir just smiled as Brooke shook her hand up and down to get rid of the continuous flow of blood. In the end she had to put her lips there for a minute or two until the platelets got to mending the broken skin. Then she continued with her talking.

"I guess that after years of being such a freak I've learned to adapt to it. Now anything that will make me look remotely interesting to any boys completely evades my eyes. In school, if I had the choice, I'd probably wear what I am now, a plain shirt with a sweater and jeans. Nothing more and _definitely _nothing less. I'd just be little old Brooke sinking into the shadows like any other day."

"Don't you get lonely?"

"You know… You _would _think that, wouldn't you? But no. Actually, I like being alone. I get to write my stories or read as much as I want to. There's no one talking to interrupt m music or stop me because my typing is too loud. No, I'm perfectly happy being a freak. I don't _want_ to be noticed. I don't _want_ to look appealing to the opposite sex. And I don't _want_ to look pretty."

"You don't want to look pretty?"

"No."

"But even I like looking pretty! Everyone loves to look pretty!"

"Not me. I like having bags in my eyes and looking so pale that I'm almost dead. Sometimes I stay up just to get these bags." Brooke pointed to the think, purpled bags that were underneath her eyes. Then she pointed to her pale cheeks to indicate how pale they truly were. "I like me for who I am. Not for you people think I should be."

"Aw. That's so cute."

"No, it's not."

Gir smiled again, his eyes crunching up very small like. Brooke had to smile back at him for that. Really, no one except for people that were related to her thought that she was pretty. Then there were her friends but she wasn't sure if they said that because they actually thought so or if they were afraid of being hurt if they said otherwise.

----------------------------------------------

Kim: Personally, I think you'd be very pretty if you wore some make-up and maybe some nice dresses or a skirt or something.

Brooke: My face is too pale for make-up to work and my legs are too muscled to look good in a skirt.

Kim: Still…

Brooke: shut up. (Raises fist to Kim's face.)

Kim: shutting up!

---------------------------------------------------------

Gir looked at Brooke. "What would you do if you saw him?"

"Who?"

"The mean boy."

"Um… Oh, Dylan. What? You mean like today?" Gir nodded. Broke thought for a moment. She spotted her wrists transistor and smirked slightly. "Well… I'd probably show him what's what. I'd show him that I deserve the respect that I had in grade school. I'd show him that I no longer like him! He's such a conceited freak! Then I'd show him that I could kick his ass any day!"

Gir didn't even comment on her bad word. He just clapped and smiled, his tongue sticking out of his open mouth. Then he stopped and turned his head a little bit to the side. "You happy now?"

Brooke nodded, "I think that I'm perfectly melancholy."

"Good!" Gir gripped her hand and hurried her into the nearest store before she could protest. "Something nice, something nice, something nice… something nice for the pretty girl… something nice, something nice, something nice… something nice for the pretty girl… something nice, something nice, something nice… something nice for the pretty girl… something nice, something nice, something nice… something nice for the pretty girl… something nice, something nice, something nice… something nice for the pretty girl… something nice, something nice, something nice… something nice for the pretty girl… something nice, something nice, something nice… something nice for the pretty girl… something nice, something nice, something nice… something nice for the pretty girl… something nice, something nice, something nice… something nice for the pretty girl… something nice, something nice, something nice… something nice for the pretty girl…"

"No! Gir! Stop!"

Gir hurried her into a Labenza Gal store. He squeaked out inaudible words the whole way as she struggled against his strong grip. Though she had talked about her problem she still didn't want to wear anything pretty…

-------------------------------------------------------------

Kim: Wear something pretty!

Brooke: No!

Kim: I said wear something pretty!

Brooke: I said no!

Kim: Just one heart shirt?

Brooke: I haven't worn a heart shirt since third grade.

Kim: I'm not giving up! Anyways people, REVIEW TO ME OR I'LL HAVE BROOKE COME OVER AND GET YOU WHILE YOU WATCH INVADER ZIM! THEN YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO SEE THE END OF THE SHOW! MAWHAHAHA!

Brooke: You can do it yourself… I quit!

Kim: What?! Oh, and to Asuka64, yes, let's go and destroy the weenie place. I wouldn't want your head to go and explode on me.


	8. Red and Purple

Chapter 7

Zim fiddled with a few devices in his lab. He'd done quite a lot in the past few days and he didn't know why. So know he sat, in his labs, completely bored and utterly depressed. He had nothing left for him to work on. His PAK was ok and didn't need adjustments and he couldn't think of anything in the lab or house that could do with a good tune up. Everything like that he'd done the few days where Brooke first started living with him again.

Now he was really freaking bored.

The little Irken sighed.

He flicked at a few switches on his computer board. The screen lit up instantly but he was sure that he hadn't pressed anything to do so. Zim wondered who was contacting him.

Soon the Tallest's faces, Red and Purple, appeared on the screen. They looked pretty bored too.

"Greetings my Tallest," Zim tried to seem enthusiastic about seeing them so suddenly but he couldn't really hide how bored he was. The Tallest could see that in him as well. "What are you doing calling me, Zim?" he asked.

"Oh," said Purple. "We were just really bored and we decided to torment y-…"

Red elbowed him hard and Purple sank down where he was. Zim watched as one of the Tallest sank below the screen, his arms still flailing upwards in an attempt to grip Red's neck and make him pay for that sudden attack. Red watched Purple flail like that for a little while and then turned back to Zim.

"What Purple means to say is that we were wondering how your… uh… 'Invasion' of the human race is going."

"Oh, uh, quite well sir. Really, quite well. Couldn't be better… Nope. Couldn't be better even if we used all the better things on Irk."

If Red had any eyebrows he would have raises one. Instead he just made one of his rectangular eyes get longer at the top and the other one smaller. He stared down at Zim. "You don't sound very thrilled about it."

Purple struggled to his feet. He thought of something. "Hey Zim! We're giving you 3 megadoomers! Plus we'll through in plasmarian battle tanks, maim bots, a death ray cannon and a sack of tacquetoes!" (Kim: I think that I spelt that wrong… oh well!)

Red's face lit up and he readied to punch Purple again, thinking that he'd gone insane!

Zim didn't really flinch. "Yeah… sure… whatever…"

This time both of their faces lit up and they stared at Zim in shocked silence.

Finally Red spoke up. "Are… Are you serious?"

Zim didn't really move. He had his head down on the computer terminal now and was sort of looking tired. But both Tallest knew that he couldn't be tired. Zim had a bottomless reservoir of energy all ready to destroy anything in its path. And yet he wasn't caring about such weapons he had asked for when they sent him to Hobo 13! This was incredible!

… And a little bit scary…

Red raised a brow to him. "Zim, what the heck is the matter with you? What on Irk has made you like this?"

Purple raised a brow to him. But he soon stopped. It was true. Seeing Zim like that was really scary and, although they didn't like him when he was normal, him being like that was enough to make them uneasy. Any force that could do that to Zim would have to be very strong indeed. Maybe powerful enough to destroy the Irken Empire!! Oh no!! (Kim: I really wouldn't be surprised if Brooke **could** do that.)

Red repeated the question to Zim after finding out that he hadn't been listening. This time though he did it louder so Zim would sit up.

"Uh… Well, there's this dance at the skool and… uh… each human child was instructed to bring a 'date', or so I've heard that they are called. Anyways, I met a human that I have to take to this 'dance'" he made little motions with his fingers at that.

Red and Purple didn't know what the motion meant and so continued doing it while Zim talked. They had quite the time.

"Anyways," he continued. "This girl-human is not like most humans. Where one human is stupid and tall she is short and… brilliant! She knows this 'math' thing off the back and she's quite good at beating up most humans in sports lately. But then… I'm not sure that she's really a human now. I saw her struck down by a piece of human filth just the other day. She looks like a human but she's also like an Irken. I don't know which is which!"

Red snapped back to attention. "I see… How long have you know the human or… Irken?"

"Like how long have I been aware of her existence or how long have I talked with her?"

"Both."

"I've known about her for about… 2 months maybe… and I've talked with her for about 3 weeks of that."

"I see…" Red rubbed his chin a little bit. He was deep in thought. Or maybe he was faking it. It was quite difficult to tell which one was happening. "So you're saying that she looks like a human but she's also like an Irken?"

"Yes. She has a form for both."

"Why don't you just ask her which she is?" asked Purple.

"Uh…"

Red waved his hands in front of the screen. "Never mind that Zim. You haven't told us what has you so depressed. Tell us why you're like that."

"Yeah," said Purple. "Whatever made you like that would have to be strong enough to destroy anything in its path! I mean, we're talking about all of civilization here! And if it's not human then it could get out and get us!" He started to float around the room, flailing his arms. Red and Zim watched him go. Eventually Purple went out the door for donuts, still flailing, and the two red-eyed Irkens talked.

"The thing that has me so wound up **is** the Irken/human."

"I see… Why?"

"I… really don't know…"

There was a moment of silence.

"So what are you going to wear?"

"Eh?"

"To the dance. What are you going to wear?"

Zim shrugged his shoulders. He looked down at his outfit. "Uh… this?" He tugged on the ends of his standard uniform.

"You wear that everyday. If you're going to a dance then you have to look good. Besides, if you like this girl it might be better if you do."

"**I don't like her!**"

Red smirked. _"I wouldn't be so sure about that… defective PAK and whatnot…"_

"Huh? What'd you say?"

"Uh, nothing."

Zim raised a brow but stayed quiet nonetheless.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kim: Ok, now Zim's getting ready for the dance! And I'm debating whether or not I should continue in this series. I have ideas for other stories but school's coming and I don't know if I want to or not. What do you think?

Brooke: It's not a consolation to me.

Kim: You're no fun. And I wasn't talking to you. Anyways peoples. Review and tell me if you think I should continue after I'm done this story. Cos if I do there's like ten more to come then.

Brooke: Pft… (Blows bangs out of face)


	9. The dress gasp!

Chapter 8

"I'm not **fucking** coming out!"

"No language!"

There was a scream that came from behind the door.

Gir flinched a little bit.

"Oh, shut up you robotics reject! I've never been as mad in the past 3 years as I am right now! You impertinent, unintelligent, dimwitted, ineffectual, pathetic, contemptible, despicable, empty-headed, dysfunctional, arrogant, piece of superfluous, not to mention ridiculously unnecessary, junk! I **hate** you for this, Gir! I hate you and I'm never going to forgive you! You horrible, redundant, vile and pathetic piece of Irken trash! You hearted pile of trash metal! You're going to be in the junkyard by the time I've finished with your rusted ass! I'm going to tear your arm off and then I'm going to pull your eyes out and plunge them into the city cess pool! Horrible! Despicable! Unacceptable! Piece of trash! I **hate** you! This is the stupidest thing that I've ever done! I don't know why I didn't just chew my arm off when you dragged me in here! And who on Irk chooses such a ridiculous outfit to wear? This is just stupid! It's pointless to wear something like this! Who in the world would actually wear this? And idiot! That's who! I've never been so angry before! I'll kill you! I'll tear you piece from piece you good from nothing, malfunctioning android! You'll wish that Red and Purple had never created you by the time I get through with you, you despicable robot! No! No! **No!** This is so stupid!!" There was the sound of wood shattering and of fabric tearing into pieces. Before the door had closed Gir had seen a wooden chair with a green, flowered cushion on it. He now realised that, when the door opened again, he would see only splinters and fluff all over the floor. **"Irk forsaken, no good, pathetic, inexcusable, humiliating, ridiculous, superfluous, gratuitous, unnecessary!!! Argh!!!!!" **

Gir stood outside the change room. He tapped his foot on the tiling. "You gonna come out yet?"

"Yeah… ok…"

The door opened a crack and Gir waited for her to come out. She took a long pause and then came out and stood in front of him.

Brooke had a purple dress on. It frilled close to the bottom and had a great assortment of wondrous bows that decorated all along the bottom and waist. It was incredibly tight, even for her, and the outside was finished off with her hair tied up in two bows on either side of her head. Brooke frowned and looked at her feet. She had on pointed, purple, high-heels. "These are very uncomfortable."

"You look perty!"

"No, I don't. I'm not wearing this." Brooke tore the bow out of her hair and let it fall again.

Gir went into a fit of wha and woo to convince her to wear it. But Brooke merely stood there. She acted as though he wasn't doing anything and continued to pull at the dress's more uncomfortable parts. The little dog realized that his trick wouldn't work on Brooke! She was immune! Curious…

He hurried away. Brooke watched him go.

After a while he didn't come back and she assumed that he had left her from defeat. Brooke wandered back into the changing room and changed back into her favourite, grubby outfit. She really liked that about it. It was grubby and it was all hers.

When Gir returned he had a lady and was carrying her above his head. She was screaming the whole time. Then eh set her down and, relieved, she tidied herself up. Brooke stepped out at that very time and ended up staring the woman in the face. They nearly collided. The woman screeched in fear and jumped back a meter when she saw Brooke.

"Oh, come on! I don't look **that** dead! Do I?"

Gir nodded.

The woman tried to catch her breath. "Ok… Whew… you scared me there… Ok. Your dog came and got me. Is there anything that I can help you with?"

"No, we were just leaving."

The lady spotted the purple dress in Brooke's hand. "Oh, I see. The typical Goth going to a school dance with a boy. How sweet."

"I'm not a Goth!" called EB.

"Hmm… You know… I may have quite the thing for you…" She hurried away, leaving Brooke and Gir to shrug at one another. When she came back she had about 10 different dresses in hand. "Try these on, I'm sure one of them will work for you."

"All of those?"

"Yes."

Brooke grumbled and took them in hand. Then she walked into the change room. Gir and the lady patiently waited for her to come out again with one of the new dresses on. Hopefully one of them would work for her. If none of them didn't she was surly doomed at the dance.

--------------------------------------------------------

Brooke came out of the change room.

Gir and the lady looked at the dress.

It was plain red, save for the pink at the bottom. There were frills right close to the end so it sort of looked like a Spanish dress. There was a fake rose close to the strap and there was a pink lining across the waist.

Brooke looked at them and shook her head. "I can't stand pink. I won't wear anything with pink on it. Which means…" she took 6 dresses out of the room and passed them to the woman. Each one had some pink on it. "I won't be needing to try these ones on."

Then she went back in.

-------------------------------------------------------

Brooke came out of the change room.

Gir and the lady looked at the dress.

It was a pretty strange one. The top stuck out like a vampire collar that you always saw in those cheesy vampire movies that were mostly made for men. It was also incredibly short and was the most ugly shade of orange. Usually orange didn't bother her but like this then it was just grotesque.

Brooke looked at them and shook her head. "If it's possible for the students at the skool to see more of my cleavage than a plumber's ass I know that it's not the right type of dress for me to wear. I will not be wearing this one either."

Then she went back in.

-------------------------------------------------------

Brooke came out of the change room.

Gir and the lady looked at the dress.

This one had to be the most redundant of the lot. It was like the dress seen in the movie, Beauty and the Beast. But this dress was coloured dark black and instead of bows had skulls all along it. Needless to say it made Brooke's but look incredibly large. Gir had to stop himself from laughing to avoid getting beat on.

Brooke looked at them and shook her head. "This has to be one of the most pathetic ones in there. There's nothing that will work with me!"

She hurried over to a rack of pink dressed and thrust it to the floor. "Pink!"

She went over to a rack that had the pris dresses on it. "Too perky!"

She ran over to a rack of dresses that were even too Goth for her. "Way too dark!"

She hurried over to a rack that had assorted yellow dresses. "Yellow is ugly!"

EB thrust her hand into a rack and pulled out a dress at random, not even bothering to look at it. She thrust it out and showed it to Gir and the cowering lady. "And this! This is pathetic! This store branch is pathetic! Everything here is pathetic! Even this dress is… is…" EB glanced at it. The dress caught her eye and she held it out for her to see well.

She eyed the dress up and down, carefully taking in each part of it. The fabric looked comfortable and it didn't look like it would choke her or show off too much cleavage. The designs were quite interesting. And she could always sow a special one on later. There was even enough room for improvement. Plus, it didn't look as though it was the best dress in the store, which was even better. It looked stretchy too so that was good, and it even came with a pair of boots. They looked pretty high and they were her size too.

Gir rested on her shoulder. "What's wrong with that one?"

"Well… maybe this one isn't as bad as the rest…"

"Yay!" Gir grabbed the dress and Brooke in his other hand. He hurried over to the counter, slapped the money on the table and then ran out of the store.

"Gir! Where are we going now?"

"Make-up!"

"No! No way! I draw the line at that! A dress is enough! No make-up! No!! **No!!**"

Brooke was pulled into the make-up emporium.

----------------------------------------------------------

Kim: See, I told you that you would look good with some make-up and a dress or two.

Brooke: Shut up before I make you shut up

Kim: shutting up… PEOPLES! REVIEW TO ME! HURRY! BEFORE BROOKE KILLS ME! AHH! And between you and me, she's been feeling depressed lately (little bit suicidal) REVIEW HER STORIES TO MAKE HER FEEL BETTER! She loves getting reviews. I asked her if she's rather have food or reviews and she said reviews! (Gasp)!

Brooke: I hate you…

Kim: You see?! Do you?!


	10. Zim's Taunghting

Chapter 9

Zim answered the phone after it had rung for the umpteenth time. He said a bored hello and his eyes lit up for some reason he wasn't aware of when he heard the other person talk. He no longer wished to be sulking in his lab. He was perfectly fine standing right there.

"Hi Zim," came Brooke's voice. "I'll be out a little bit longer than I thought before…"

"You didn't even tell me that you were going. I was wondering where you were."

"Why?"

"Uh…"

"Never mind. Anyways, Gir's got me tied up here so I' won't be back until later. No! Gir!" There was a bit of static. "I told you! Ruby is not my color! You put that on me and I'll kill you! No! Not that one either!"

"You ok?"

"What? Yeah. Fine. Got to go, Zim. Bye."

"Wait!"

There was no answer because Brooke had already hung up the phone.

Zim sighed. He kicked at the ground a little bit. At least talking to someone made him feel a little bit better.

"Aiyaaaaaa!! Ooooooo! Aiyaaaaa! Ooooooo!"

Zim looked around.

"All the days when we just played," came Brooke's voice. She was singing. It rang through the house be he knew that she wasn't there. "Back in skool, just me and you. But I can't forget you know. What am I supposed to do?"

"We can be more than friends…" This time it was his own voice that was doing it but it wasn't him who was singing it! "Do you know I'm here for you? Because you're so easy to love," his antennas perked up at that. "When you smile the sky turns blue!"

This time they were singing the verses of the song together! "I do, I do, I do, do, I do love you. And do you, do you, do, do you love me too? I do, I do, I do, do I do love you. And do you, do you, do, do you love me too?"

"COMPUTER!"

There was a snicker.

"DO NOT TAUNGHT ZIM!!"


	11. Bitters's wierd test

Chapter 10

The day of the dance was fast approaching. There was no telling when it would come down. Well actually there was. The dance was meant to happen on Friday. As they sat in class every child was perfectly aware that it was Wednesday. They only had two more days before they had to dance in the skool hall with other kids.

Zim worked on the sheet that Ms. Bitters had given him. He was having a little bit of difficulty doing the work though. To prepare for the test he'd studied math and science. But this sheet wasn't about either.

His eyes scanned over the room and landed on Brooke.

She had her hair pushed back behind her ears so that she was able to see the paper. Her pencil was moving fast on the paper. She erased a few things a couple of times but other than that she seemed to know exactly what it was she was doing.

He sighed. _How does she know so much? How on Irk can she do this page?_

----------------------------------------------------------------

Brooke tapped her pencil against her lip. She looked at the questions in front of her. And hurriedly she filled them out to the best of her abilities. It looked like something that Ms. Bitters would accept. If it hadn't been for the fact that the questions were pointless and didn't help with her future. But then, all the better.

She already knew enough about the human body to look at them in crime labs. And she was a pretty good writer so she could fall back on that and her artistic skills as well.

Broke looked over her paper.

Under the chair where Zita is sitting, before the big bang, there was what?** Nothing**

Can roosters fly? **Only if they have rocket launchers strapped to their backs.**

Is Dib crazy? **Yes.**

Who is the most important man on the Earth?** Professor Membrane**

Mars is?** Probably heading past planet Blorch by now.**

You want to be what when you grow up? **A forensic pathologist**

Why? **Because I like to tear things apart and look inside them**

What's your backup? _Now that's creepy… _**Writer/artist**

Why? **People say that I'm good at it and I think it would be acceptable to fall back on something like that.**

We are all?** Doomed… doomed… doomed!!**

Brooke smiled at the work.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Zim eyed his answer, pretty satisfied.

Under the chair where Zita is sitting, before the big bang, there was what?** Nothing**

Can roosters fly? **If ZIM commands of it then yes.**

Is Dib crazy? **Most definitely.**

Who is the most important man on the Earth?** ZIM**

Mars is?** A planetary spaceship that can be manned by a single pilot to crush planets or simply roll around on the surface. Had Mercury not interfered that would have happened to Earth! Mwahahahaha!!**

You want to be what when you grow up? **The lord of all humans**

Why? **To show humans that ZIM is much better than they**

What's your backup? **ZIM needs no backup!**

Why? **I am ZIM!**

We are all?** Doomed… doomed… doomed!!**

Ms. Bitters collected the papers.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

10 minutes later she passed them out again. Brooke smiled at her page. Surprisingly she had gotten all perfect.

Zim smiled too. Although he didn't get perfect it was the best he'd gotten on one of these strange tests.

He glanced at Brooke. _She's good luck!_

She eyed him. "What are you looking at?"

"Nothing!"

"Zim and Brooke, sitting in a tree," chimed the class. "K-I-S-S-I-N-G!!"

At the end of the day every child that had been in the class, save for Dib, Zim and Brooke, left with black eyes and bloodied noses. Courtesy of EB.

-------------------------------------------

Kim: Don't know why I did this… I was sort of bored. Just like in the last one. Ha!

Brooke: Idiot…


	12. A nice little soccer game

Chapter 11

It was Thursday now.

A lot of the kids were pretty nervous about the dance. Especially the screamy kid. He screamed every time his date got near him.

Brooke remained content with it though. She was pretty good when it came to pressure. Even when big exams were coming up she would study the night before or right before the test and wouldn't be scared at all. Anyways, the dance didn't really scare her. As far as she knew she didn't **have** to dance if she didn't want to. And Zim most likely wouldn't want too either. So that was good. Brooke planned to sit on the bench and just wait for it to end. No dancing would happen if it didn't have to.

Zim seemed to be ok to her. But really he had the whole thing going through his head. It went around like when Gir danced on his head. Now he was starting to get a headache. (Kim: Wow, lots of heads there!) He was fairly ok with the dance thing and wearing something else. But he **had** **to** **dance **with **EB/Brooke**—he wasn't sure who was who anymore. Ms. Bitters had said, when he asked, that he did, in fact, have to dance when he was there. But dancing with Brooke made him so nervous!

Dib was terrified of the dance. Ever since he had said yes to Gretchen's request she'd been all over him. One time, she even followed him into the boy's room to make sure eh didn't ask someone out. That was just plain gross! He'd always thought that Gretchen was a really nice girl. She'd always been so shy and stuff. But now she was as crazy as Zim was! She was all over him and she wouldn't leave him alone. Dib could swear that she was outside his window every night.

Gretchen was extremely exited about the dance. She was going to wear a very pretty dress and very pretty shoes and a very pretty bow in her hair. She was going to be a great date for Dib! A great date! But she was constantly on the lookout for threats to her cause. For all she knew Dib was planning to go out with someone else. Gretchen knew, for a fact, that he had wanted to ask that other girl out, Brooke. But she'd been able to prevent that for the most part. But just to be safe she followed him and watched him sleep.

Gaz wasn't happy with the dance at all. She had refused to take a person to it and so had been assigned a partner. Her dance partner was a pretty twitchy kid who always sat at the rejects table with all the rejects. He screamed every time she got close to him. The strange thing was, he wasn't the screamy kid, he was the kid with the webbed toes. He hadn't told her what his name was so she called him Duck. Gaz usually kept herself busy with her game and so whenever someone talked about the dance she'd hurt them… a lot.

Brooke sighed and looked at some kids out of the field. They had gotten into a good game of soccer. She'd been feeling a little bit down in the dumps, sort of suci, (Kim: Get it?) and so she thought that a game would cheer her up. Sort of get rid of those bad thoughts.

She walked over to the field. Zim watched her go, slightly curious. He furrowed where his brows should have been and watched her walk up to the team and ask to play with them.

----------------------------------------------------------

"Hi guys," she said, walking up to a boy in an orange shirt with black hair.

They each looked a little bit surprised. Usually Brooke didn't want to talk to anyone. But now she was coming up to them to say hello. They each said a little, pathetic, hello.

"Can I play?" she asked.

"No." said one boy.

"Why not?" her voice had raised.

"No girls are allowed to play with us."

Brooke raised a brow. "Why? That's so sexist."

They each laughed.

"What?"

"You said sex."

"I said sexist."

They laughed again.

EB crossed her arms and focused her glare on the boys in the group. They each stood at attention, hoping to avoid a beating. EB paced up and down the line of boys, she looked at each of them carefully. She came to one boy who looked incredibly small, he was scrawny and had no muscles at all. She pointed to him. "Why don't I replace this guy? He can't be any help on the field, can he?"

They each shook their heads.

"Good, then I'll replace him."

"No."

"Why not this time?"

"Because you're still a girl."

EB frowned and thought. She took the moment in quietly and then something caught her attention. She'd seen the boys play every day and she'd seen their horrible movements. These kids sucked when it came to soccer and she knew for a fact that she was better than the entire two teams combined. That was it!

"Tell you what, I'll leave you alone and not beat up on you for two weeks if you can beat me in a game of soccer. What do you say?"

"What about a team?"

"You can use your whole team and the other one if you want to."

"I meant for you."

"Did I say that I needed a team?"

They looked at each other, grins on their faces. "I think that we can live with that."

-------------------------------------------------------------

"Ok, that's the winning point!"

Everyone filed in, some much happier than others. Brooke stepped in front of them all. A frown was planted on her pale face. She was incredibly upset with the game's turnout. She's gone ahead and assumed that playing with the boys would be a good thing. She thought that challenging them to a game of soccer would be a good thing and would make her feel cheerier.

But no.

She hadn't had any clue as to the fact that the game would go by so quickly! The defeat had been done hard and humiliating. The losing team frowning with dislike.

Just so you know, Brooke won the game.

She'd figured that the game would have been far more challenging. But it wasn't and she didn't feel all too happy about it. The boys had been beaten easily and she was bored again. Brooke watched the boys weep in the corner of the field while she played around with the ball at her feet. She did a few practise shots at the louder criers and then zoomed over to get the ball.

But the bell rang and she had to go inside, alas.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Zim heard the bell. But the movements of the game were still running through his scull. The way EB had been able to dodge everything! She'd duck under their legs, the ball still at her feet, and she'd close around them, landing a punch in their faces. Although that would have been a penalty in a game game it wasn't in a game at skool and so she was allowed to do so. That had sent more and more human boys to the bench.

Zim smile had gotten even larger every time she had done that.

But now the game was over and he was sand for that.

There would be no more human hurting for the day.

Maybe tomorrow, before the dance.

------------------------------------------

Kim: All right, a fun little chapter because I wanted to do it. Brooke played a game of soccer a while ago and I decided to do this. Anyways, she wasn't on MSN today so she won't be dropping a comment in. Remember, she's feeling suicidal a bit lately so she's not on a lot anymore. (Sigh) No Brooke comment today. Anyways… REVIEW MY STORY OR BE BURNED IN THE BLESSED FLAMES OF DEATH! YAY! Filler Bunny!


	13. Outside the doors

Chapter 12

Zim looked in the mirror at his outfit.

He didn't much care for it but he didn't complain. The Tallest had said that he must wear something nice and so he was wearing something nice. Although he completely hated what he was wearing he said nothing to upset them. After all, they were right behind him on a big screen, examining the uniform. (Secretly they were laughing)

Zim had on a type of strange tuxedo. He had a white shirt on. Then there was a black tuxedo over top of it. He had a bow tie and normal black pants on. Even though the outfit looked comfortable, Zim felt uncomfortable wearing it. It made him feel all human and yucky and stuff like that… Yeah… That's it…

(Kim: (dies) blah…)

He'd been waiting for EB to come for a while now but he'd also already received a call from the cosmetics department at the mall. Gir had been calling and Zim asked him where EB was. Gir had said that he was with the 'pretty gurl', there'd been a gurgling sound after that last part, and that she would meet Zim at the school.

Then he had hung up.

The little Irken sighed. "I feel ridiculous."

"Nonsense…" red tried to stifle a laugh. "You look great for your date."

"Yeah," said Purple. "You look great for the date."

"It's not a date!"

Both Tallest looked utterly shocked. They stopped their laughing and merely starred at Zim. Purple's mouth sank on his face and, when it couldn't go any further down his jaw dropped. Red rose where his eyebrow should have been as he starred at Zim.

Zim sank where he stood. "Sorry my Tallest… Anyways… I'm going to go now…" Then Zim hurried out of the room, leaving the screen on.

Red and Purple stayed right there.

They watched the lab from the screen.

Taking interest they each took a look around. They took an interest in the wires and the metal panels and whatnot. Red looked at some things that Zim had been working on in the corner. Purple took a look at the way Zim had decided to organize all of his games and stuff. He wondered where he kept the snacks in a place like that. Purple smirked and turned to Red, who was smirking back at him. "Wanna mess with him?"

"Oooohh yeeeaaahhh…"

"You!" Purple yelled to a worker off screen. He raised his hand into the air and pointed to the ceiling, yelling with his eyes closed, "bring out the mallets!!"

------------------------------------------------------------------

Zim tapped his foot as he waited outside of the school's front doors. It wasn't a really cold night but he was shivering nonetheless. He felt cold when it came to this sort of thing. Then again, he had never really felt this sort of thing before so he wasn't sure if it was really from feeling this… or… you know… ah! Hell! You get the picture! Right? If not then you're stupid and deserve to have Brooke sicked on you!!

Anyways, back to the story.

Zim watched as children filed inside. They each were dressed pretty nicely. There were some exceptions when it came to Willy and his date and stuff like that. Torque had actually ripped the back of his jacket but people were trying to ignore that. However, his hairy back made that a difficult thing to do.

The line of kids going inside was slowly getting smaller and smaller as Zim watched them. Ms. Bitters turned to him, a scowl on her face. "Zim! Where's your date?" Her date, the poor, nervous Melvin, was hanging from her clutching grip. He desperately tried to get away but, sadly, could not.

"She'll be here in a little while."

"OK. But if I come out here again and find you standing there with no date then you will have to pair up me Melvin and me." She held the boy up to show Zim.

"RUN!" cried Melvin as he tried to escape. He had currently taken up the task of trying to chew his own arm off. "RUN! Run for your life! And never turn back!!"

Zim flinched back. Ms. Bitters dragged her date inside and then the doors were slammed shut, leaving Zim in the dark night, waiting for his date to show up. The little Irken grabbed hold of his own arms and began to rub up and down, trying to get rid of the cold feeling. But it didn't work; because the cold was inside of his skin and he couldn't just rub it away. Then again, he didn't know that. So Zim rubbed faster. Trying to warm up oh so much! Oh so much!!

There was a slight clattering, like metal hitting stone, coming from behind him. The sound was small and then started up again, much louder. It slowly got louder but Zim wasn't exactly sure of where it was coming from really. He continued to shiver and rub his arms, looking around for the source of the clattering. It had now started to speed up and get incredibly fast and incredibly near him. It wasn't until the yell came out did he find where it was coming from.

"**LOOK OUT, SHISNO!!"**

Zim was knocked down hard and landed, just barely covering his chin before impact. He grunted and frowned in dislike and yelled out at the person that had knocked him down. "Watch where you're going, pathetic human! Zim doesn't want to be touched by someone who smells like feet!"

"You see Gir? I told you that perfume smelled like feet."

Zim rose where his brow should have been. He turned over, once the person climbed off, and was starring straight into the brown eyes of EB. She was dusting herself off, side turned to him. Gir was next to her, a bowtie around his neck and his dog costume on. He was smiling really wide like and looking very pleased with himself.

Zim scrambled to his feet. "Uh, that's not what I meant…"

"Yeah, Yeah. You don't have to say anything. I already know that the perfume smells like a donkey's butt. But Gir wouldn't let me pick anything else. Let alone wear nothing like that at all. I hate perfume…" Brooke straightened herself up. "All perfumes smell bad if you ask me."

Zim's jaw dropped.

Brooke had on a black dress that went down to her knees. Then she had a pair of boots on that were metal at the bottom and had strips of metal going all around the sides in fun little patterns. There was a red belt around her waist as well. It looked far too large for her but, somehow, stayed up. There were little white sculls around it too, it looked like they had once been keyholes but a sharpie marker had been used to draw eyes and lines along the bottom for a jaw. She had the Irken Empire symbol newly sews into the chest of the dress and, when he looked, Zim could see that the shoulders were enlarged and sort of like his shoulder pads. Her eyes had heavy, dark purple across her lids and it shined when she blinked. There was a strip of long fabric that went down to her ankles around the back of the dress, not the front, and she had a pair of loop earrings on. What surprised him the most was the fact that her hair was brushed! Brushed! As long as he'd known her Zim had never even see her go near a hair brush and now she was in front of him with wavy, brown locks. It was sort of creepy yet, oddly, hypnotizing.

Brooke caught his stare and her eyes drooped. Her shoulder folded back and she shrank where she stood. "I know…" she sighed. "I look ridiculous, don't I?"

Zim shook his head but, because her mood didn't change, he assumed she hadn't seen him do it. The Irken took her hand, making her eye look up, and dragged her inside. "Come on," he said. "Ms. Bitters doesn't want anyone left outside."

They walked into the doors together. Zim tightened his bowtie and Brooke straightened her dress out a little bit.

Together they walked into the gym.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kim: Yay! Brooke looks so good in the dress in my head!

Brooke: I… am… going… to… kill… you… (Twitches eye)

Kim: eheh eheh eheh… bye! (Runs!)

Brooke: (Chases!) **Get back here you IRK FORSAKEN SHISNO!!!**


	14. Dancing like a monkey!

Chapter 13

**_Let me out._**

_No._

_**Come on. Just one fight on the dance floor? It'll be real contained.**_

_I'm sure…_

_**Five minutes. Just five minutes.**_

_The answer is still no._

_**Oh! You stupid, law-abiding, idiotic, little girl! Why do I even have to listen to you anyways? I should be the one controlling our actions. I should be out there! I want to get out! You can't keep me inside forever! You know that you can't! Just let me out for a while so that you can replenish your strength. You'll feel much better after you do. Just a few minutes on the dance floor. I want to get back at that girl, Gretchen, too. You know, for when she tackled Dib in front of the base when he was trying to talk to us. I want to get her for that! Let me out!**_

_Let me think about that… No._

_**You didn't even think about that, shisno.**_

_I'm not letting you out because I know that you'll fight when it's time to get back in. I'm going to keep you inside as long as possible and then you're going to become nothing but a memory to me. You'll slip away once and for all after a few years and then I'll be able to forget all about you. _

_**You see that's where you're wrong, little girl. I won't be going anywhere for quite a while. After that thing with Dib all those months back I've become angered again. I'm back and badder than ever. Once I get mad enough I'm going to burst through this stupid mental barrier that you've put up and then I'm going to come out fully and everyone in the area will get hurt. Don't you think that it would make more sense to continuously cool me down?**_

_It would if I would be able to easily put you back. But, sadly, I cannot put you back easily and, so, you must stay._

_**Fine. But when I do come out you'll be sorry. Because you won't be able to get back out. I'll keep you in like you're doing to me right now. Then you'll be sorry that you didn't let me out when you first had the chance to. You'll see how sorry you can be when I come out for my revenge. You'll see. **_

_I'm sure I will…_

_**Oh, you will… YOOOUUUU WWWWIIIIILLLLLL…**_

"Brooke?"

She sat up straight and shook the tiredness from her eyes. Brooke rubbed her left eye, because it was very irritable, and then looked up to see who had disturbed her in the middle of some serious thinking.****The person she saw before her was Dib of all people. She was actually surprised that he had been able to find her in such a crowded room. In fact, a lot of the kids had actually gone outside because the place was so crowded.

Dib had on a filly looking blue tuxedo. When she'd seen Gretchen earlier that night Brooke had noticed that she had been wearing a blue dress with frilly, white sleeves. It was assumed that Gretchen had chosen Dib's outfit for him so that they would match. But, now, Gretchen was nowhere to be seen. Obviously Dib had been able to evade her and slip away into the crowd. Now he'd found Brooke.

"Brooke?" he repeated. "Are you all right? You look… different."

"I wonder if the make-up may have anything to do with that." Brooke rolled her eyes.

"Oh, right. Sorry."

"Don't be."

Dib sat down in a chair next to Brooke. He swung his legs aimlessly as he leaned back and watched as the other kids in the room danced away to the music of Belly Furdato and her song ManDevourerer. They all seemed quite happy with dancing on the floor. Then there was Brooke, who sat on the sidelines and watched quietly.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

All night he'd watched her from afar and found that Brooke hadn't really moved from her spot. Zim had been sitting there with her for the longest time, just talking to her. But, not too long ago, someone had spilled a tray of something on him and the alien had run from the room, screaming. Dib had followed him into the men's room and taunted him for a while. But when Zim didn't come out and continued to make gross noises from the stall he'd returned to the dance room.

So now he was sitting next to Brooke, away from Gretchen for the first time all night. Being next to Brooke made him feel a little bit nervous. After all, after seeing what she did to the entire class the day of Miss Bitters' test he'd been quite nervous about her. She'd really changed from the girl that he had met at first. That nice artist that he had known and liked turned sour so quickly. And it wasn't just recently; he'd noticed a change before they crossed over to her dimension as well.

So he looked over to her. Dib was surprised that she had worn a dress.

It was then that he noticed the little dog beside her chair. Gir was curled up by the leg, rubbing against her boot. He looked very happy, just lying there. It wasn't any wonder that Dib hadn't seen him before, because Brooke hadn't given any attention to the robot/dog. She'd acted as though he wasn't even there. In fact, even when she'd been talking to Zim it looked like she wasn't even really listening. It was sort of like she was off in her own thoughts but listening too. Like someone else was there while she was occupied with something else.

-------------------------------------------------

Kim: Big hint for later stories right there!

-------------------------------------------------

Dib looked down at Gir and sort of smiled when the robot wriggled where he was and smiled wide. He could see that even Gir had dressed up. He had a bowtie on. It was loose and crooked but it was there nonetheless.

Then he turned his attention back to Brooke, who was still just sitting there. But as he looked closer he found something quite strange that had happened to her. Her eyes were no longer brown; they weren't even like normal human eyes anymore. No. Brooke's eyes had turned completely black and then there was a stream of white that rotated across the middle, back and forth. It was sort of like it was reading the data in front of it. Like a robot. LOL.

He got a little worried for her now.

This wasn't normal. Although Brooke, herself, wasn't normal either this was just too weird.

This wasn't right.

Dib snapped his fingers in front of her face and waved his hand to her. "Brooke? Brooke? Are you ok? Brooke? Can you hear me?" He was able to get a reaction.

Brooke shook her head hard and wobbled a bit. "Huh?" She turned to Dib. "Oh, I'm sorry. Did you say something?"

"Uh… yeah… I was…" He looked out to the dance floor for a moment. His eyes crossed around the room, looking at all of the kids dancing and having such a good time. It looked very fun, to dance like that, not a care in the world. Dib wondered if he would be able to dance and just wash away the worries about Zim conquering the world for at least one night. Not being worried about that sort of thing might feel good. "Yeah. I was wondering if…" he turned back to Brooke. "If you wanted to dance. Do you?"

Brooke's face went blank. She looked completely surprised at what had just come from his mouth. "Uh… N-No thanks… I… uh… don't dance. Sorry…"

Dib sank down in his seat. Rejection hurt. A lot. He hadn't expected Brooke to just say no thanks to his offer to dance. From what he could tell she was a pretty lonely girl. And from what Kim had told him when he was in her dimension three months ago Brooke never really had a boyfriend or dated anyone at all. She didn't love anyone and Dib thought that maybe all she needed was someone nice to make her feel good. It couldn't hurt to make her feel good for one night.

So he turned back to her and smiled. "Come on Brooke. You'll have fun. Dancing will help you to take your mind off of things."

"That's what I'm afraid of…" she muttered.

"What?"

"Nothing!" She jumped in her seat when she said that.

Dib took her hand. "Come on. Please. Just one dance."

"But I… Don't dance."

Dib then stood up, her hand still in his. "Please. One dance? Please?" He was sure that his eyes looked watery and close to tears. Hopefully that would convince her to dance with him. If the watery eyes didn't work then nothing would.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Normally, had EB been out to cause trouble, she would have just ignored his face. Then she would have taken her hand out of his grasp and shooed him away so that he would disappear into the crowd again. Then she would go back to her thoughts and not bother with him for the rest of the night.

But EB hadn't come out.

Brooke was out.

EB was safely put away and couldn't hurt anybody.

So Brooke was inclined to say yes.

And say yes she did.

"Fine…"

------------------------------------------------------------

Dib walked, with Brooke, to the dance floor. The kids around them spread farther away. Not so much to let them pass but for two other reasons. The first being that Dib was a paranoid, insane boy and that none of the other children wanted to catch of paranoidinsanesyndrom. The other reason being that Brooke was scary at times and that most of the kids still had visible black eyes and puffed up noses. So Brooke and Dib walked into a large, bare circle of the dance floor and began to dance to 'don't let me catch me' by Rose. (Kim: Get it?)

They let go of each other's hand and then started to dance away to the beat.

Dib had his hands in fists and his elbows tucked tightly to the side moving from the left to the right to the left and left again then to the right to the left to the right and to the right again. Then he repeated the pattern. His feet moved about a little bit, but not much, while he danced about.

Brooke just swayed a little bit. She had a lot of trouble getting into a dancing mood. It was much harder than it might seem to most people. She tended to look at her feet a lot and do a few moves where she would spin a whole 90 degrees and then move right back to how she was at first.

**_Hey. Guess what._**

_What?_

_**You're distracted.**_

_What?!_

Brooke stopped her dancing for a moment and looked at her feet. Her hair fell over her face a lot and most of her face wasn't seen behind the brown locks. Dib stopped and cocked his head. He was starting to get worried for her. "Brooke…? Are you… ok? Brooke?"

She looked up at him and smiled. "I'm great! I've never felt better!" Then the part in the song where is says 'doctor, doctor, would you please give me some drug? A day in the life of a hobo?' for the last time before the music line. 'Brooke' held her finger up to Dib for a moment and waited for the music part to come. Then she spread her arms wide and spun around once really quickly. In one fail sweep she went down, onto the ground. Dib though that she had fallen but she hadn't. No. Now she was on the ground; her hands stayed in, relatively, the same place as her feet spun her entire body about in a circle several times. When she pulled herself back up and raised her hands into the air everyone started to clap.

EB smiled with delight.

----------------------------------------------------

Kim: Aw! I feel all bad for leaving this for so long. Stupid tests and stupid being grounded. I hate them both. Haven't been able to update for a while but I will! I promise! And once again Brooke isn't on MSN so no quotes from her. Wha!!!


	15. Rapper

Chapter 14

Once more, Zim gagged into the toilet. He'd been having the most horrible fits of vomiting ever and he was feeling so sick that he was sure that he would die and then have to be rebooted. The fact that he couldn't stop throwing up only drove him onwards and so, gave him this conclusion. He threw up again.

"Ugh…" Zim grunted. He just wanted to sink away and die or something. Anything could be better than this. Hell, even watching EB dance would be better than this. He knew that she didn't like to dance and so seeing her dance would be incredible scary. So seeing that would even be better then this fit of vomit and chunks that blew out of his mouth and into the filthy human toilet bowl.

He tried to straighten himself up now. He was feeling somewhat better now. So Zim stood up and tried to stay up. So far it was working. He wasn't falling over and he wasn't getting sick from standing up too quickly.

The Irken smiled to himself and opened the door, also forgetting to flush the toilet. He noticed the dirty nature of his hands and hurried over to the paper towel dispenser. As he took a few pieces of brown paper he saw a child skip into the stall that he had just come out of. Then next thing that he heard was, "OH DEAR GOSH! OH MY GOSH! IT"S HORRIBLE! THE MADNESS! THE MADNESS!!!" The next sound was that of the boy retching up all of the snack cakes that he'd eaten during his time at the dance.

Zim couldn't help but smile.

He walked out into the hallways and made his way back down to the gym. He could expect to see EB (He still calls her that a lot of the time) sitting there in the chair, waiting for him to return. Then they'd sit and wait for the night to end so that they could go back to the base and discuss the newest plans to destroy the humans!

He started to laugh in the middle of the hall.

Luckily no one was there so he didn't make a fool to himself to anyone but himself. (LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

As he walked closer to the gym he could hear the music already, it was very loud.

He pushed on the big, brownish doors and entered the dark room.

What he saw before him was terrifying.

There was a band on the stage and most, if no all, of the filthy humans were crowded around it. There was a continuous beat that went on with the lead guitar player and then moved onto the base and the drums. The person singing lead, though, was who scared him the most.

Standing on the stage, singing into the mike, was EB!!

(KIM: This isn't the actually lyrics, I matched them to EB a little bit.)

"_Do you have the time?_

_To listen to me whine,_

_About nothing and everything that I want!_

_I am one of those_

_Melodramatic fools_

_Neurotic to the bone,_

_No doubt about it!_

_Sometimes I give you guys the creeps,_

_Sometimes my mind will lie to me,_

_It all keeps adding up,_

_I know I'm cracking up!_

_Am I just paranoid?_

_I want time to stop!_

_I went to a shrink, _

_To analize my dreams,_

_She said its lack of sex_

_That's bringing me down,_

_I slapped her across_

_Her stupid, smug, old face,_

_I said I'm too young,_

_I have killed her now,_

_Sometimes I give you guys the creeps,_

_Sometimes my mind will lie to me,_

_It all keeps adding up,_

_I know I'm cracking up!_

_Am I just paranoid?_

_I want time to stop!_

…

_Grasping for control…_

_I know it's better to hold on…_

…

_Sometimes I give you guys the creeps,_

_Sometimes my mind will lie to me,_

_It all keeps adding up,_

_I know I'm cracking up!_

_Am I just paranoid?_

_I want time to stop!"_

Then the music ended with the beat of the music… tune… yeah…

Zim starred, bug-eyed. He had been wrong the entire time. Not about EB not liking singing. Not about EB not liking dancing. Because both of those were true. She didn't enjoy either. No, he was wrong about the vomiting compared to watching her do what she hated. Watching her dance was definitely worse than vomiting so much.

He nearly fainted.

Then another song started. There was a lot of scratching but it was supposed to be part of the song?

Dib hurried up onto the stage with Keef and Melvin. Keef and Melvin had their arms crossed and just bopped from one side to the other. But Dib, who was on the end and closer to EB, had his right arm out and his left hand under the elbow in front of him. He bopped from side to side in tune with Keef and Melvin too. Then he sang, "Roll the dice, she's here, no kidding."

There was a scratching sound again.

Then Gir hopped onto the stage. And he sang, "Two cheese covered cows go dancing outside, dancing outside, dancing outside…" Some girls did a little beat thing with their mouths. "Two cheese covered cows go dancing outside, dancing outside, dancing outside…" Then girls again. "Whoo!" Then Kita went 'voooddoooo' from in the crowd.

"Guess who's back, back," sang Melvin, Keef and Dib. "Back again. EB's back, back. Tell a friend. Guess who's back. Guess who's back. Guess who's back. Guess who's back. Guess who's back. Guess who's back. Guess who's back. Nanana. Na. Na. Na. Na. Na. Na. Nanana. Na. Na. Na. Na." There was the sound of a match lighting.

EB jumped out from the top part of the stage where the band was to the part where the mike was. She grabbed it and pulled it to her lips.

"_I've created a monster,_

_Cos nobody wants to see Brookie no more,_

_They want EB,_

_I'm chopped liver._

_Well if you EB this is what I'll give ya,_

_A little bit of me,_

_This isn't hard_

_Well the doc getting ready_

_To jump start my heart_

_And I get shocked when I get shocked_

_I'm at the hospital not cooperating_

_Cos I'm rocking the table while he's operating,_

_Hey!_

_You wait this long to stop debating_

_Cos I'm back, I'm on a rack and calculating_

_I know that you got a job Miss Bitters_

_But your student's heart problem starts to flicker_

_So the FCC won't let me be,_

_Let me be me so let me see,_

_They try to shut me down on YTV_

_But it feels so empty without me!_

_So, come get off of my lips,_

_Jump back, jiggle a hip and wiggle a bit,_

_And get ready cos this is about to get heavy_

_I just settled on my lawsuit,_

_You get it!_

_Now this looks like a job for me so_

_Everybody, just follow me,_

_Cos we need a little humanity_

_Cos it feels too happy without me!_

_Now this looks like a job for me so_

_Everybody, just follow me,_

_Cos we need a little humanity_

_Cos it feels too preppy without me!_

_Little aliens!_ She pointed to Zim, who jumped back.

They're feeling rebellious. Wet bears! 

_My parents, well they listen to Elvis!_

_You start feeling like a prison is home, witch,_

'_Till someone comes along on a mission and yells 'bitch'!!_

_M'a visionary, vision is scary!_

_Let's start a revolution, polluting your airways,_

_A rebel! So let me be a rebel,_

_There's the fact that I got everyone kissing my ass_

_And it's a disaster_

_Such a catastrophe_

_Well you can see, so damn, bitch gotta ask_

_My mind so you ask for me,_

_Well I'm back!"_

"Nananananana!" came Dib, Keef and Melvin. "Hey! Fixing Gir and eating tunananana!" (Kim: OMG!!! I LAUGHED SO HARD AT THAT!!!!!!!!!!!!)

"_I ain't anorexic,_

_But my skin'll give you a splinter!_

_Centre of attention, back for the winner!_

_I love the West Wing!_

_Best thing since wrestling!_

_Resting in your kids ears and nesting!_

Then Gir said: "Testing, I want some cheese!"

_Feel the tension, when someone mentions me. _

_I got ten senses,_

_Gave 2 cents to B_

_New sense, which cent, you sent for me?_

_Now this looks like a job for me so_

_Everybody, just follow me,_

_Cos we need a little humanity_

_Cos it feels too empty without me!_

_Now this looks like a job for me so_

_Everybody, just follow me,_

_Cos we need a little humanity_

_Cos it feels too perky without me!_

_A tis in a tasket, I got tip for tabway,_

_Anybody who's talking this and that shit,_

_Got their ass kicked!_

_You can get you ass kicked!_

_Worse than the little man in the basket_

_And Hommies, you can get stomped by Low keys!_

_You 106 boys need to lie down!_

_You don't know me; you're too old, let go,_

_It's over, nobody listen to techno!_

_And let's go; just give me the signal,_

_I'll be there with a whole list full of sick insults,_

_Peter with that lame old thimble, like when Prince just turned himself into a Symbol._

_And, sometimes, man it just seems_

_Everybody only wants to discuss me,_

_Well this must mean I'm disgusting,_

_Well that's EB,_

_She's just obscene!_

_I am not the first queen of controversy_

_I am the worst thing since Elvis Presley_

_Use the music, get yourself busy,_

_I used it to get myself wealthy,_

_Hey!_

_Here's a concept of verse,_

_20 million other autographs, birds and worse!_

_But no matter how many fish in the sea it'd be so empty without me!!_

_Now this looks like a job for me so_

_Everybody, just follow me,_

_Cos we need a little humanity_

_Cos it feels too sexy without me!_

_Now this looks like a job for me so_

_Everybody, just follow me,_

_Cos we need a little humanity_

_Cos it feels too golly without me!"_

Dib, Keef and Melvin then went, "Nanananana, nanananana, nanananana, nananana, nanananana, nanananana, nanananana, nananana!! Queen!"

Then the music died away.

Zim fell backwards.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

KIM: OMG!!! I LOVED THAT! IT TOOK ME FOREVER TO DO BUT I STILL FREAKING LOVED IT!!! THISE IS THE LONGEST CHAPTER THAT I'VE EVER DONE… I think… AND IT'S LIKE MY FAVORITE ONE!!! WHOOO!!! I LOVED DOING THIS CHAPTER! IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!!!!!

Brooke: … what the fuck is wrong with you?

KIM: I DON'T KNOW!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!


	16. Smack!

Chapter 15

The dance had meant to end a long time ago but it had gone on long past the ending time. Mostly for the fact that Ms. Bitters really didn't care and actually left early by sinking into the floor like a shadow. The second reason why the party went on so long was from that Author that everyone… maybe not… knows from fanfiction. Empty Brooke. Yea, she carried the dance on through the night and by the time Zim woke up he found something that he hadn't wanted or been expecting.

Zim woke up to the pounding on his back and found that he was a lot closer to the ceiling than he had originally thought he could get when lying on the ground. But then the ground began to shoot things up and gab his back and he moved. Zim could tell because the ceiling was moving. At first that's what he thought was going on but when he turned he found out that he wasn't even on the ground anymore. The humans had him above their heads and they were all chanting and clapping as they passed him over their heads.

He flipped his head around and saw EB on the stage, just like when he had fallen asleep, but now she was singing The Real Bad EB.

Gir sang, "May I have your eyeballs please? May I have your eyeballs please? Will my muddy piggy please stand up? Will the real bad EB please stand up?"

Zim wriggled his way out of the hands of the people holding him and scurried across the floor to the stage. Then he gripped EB's leg tightly and pulled her down so fast that she didn't even have the chance to scream in surprise and then punch him.

The Irken dragged her across the floor, the kids moving out of his way as he went and saying 'aw'. But Zim just frowned at all of them and gave them hard stares. Zim also noticed that, when he had been out cold, EB had torn her dress into pieces and then tied it back up to make a pair of pants instead.

All the time he dragged her along the skool floor she kicked and she yelled at him and demanded that he let her go but Zim didn't and he just kept on walking and not caring what she said. So he soon made it out of the skool but in rougher shape than he had wanted to be in when he left. He had EB and her kicking to thank for that.

Zim let go of her leg and it fell to the ground with a thud.

EB flinched back fast and got to her feet just as quick. She ended up glaring at Zim for a very long time. The whole time he just stood there and stared back.

It was sort of like he was lost for words, which seemed so strange to him because Zim always had something to say even if it wasn't important at all.

Then EB stood up straight and crossed her arms, hunching her shoulder forward like she did when she wanted to hurt someone. "Why did you do that?"

"It's time to go."

"I wasn't ready."

"Do not go against my will! I am—"

"Zim, yeah," she said, waving her hand in boredom. "I got that."

Zim didn't have anything to say to that. He hadn't ever heard her talk like that to him. She usually liked him… a lot! But now she sounded like she couldn't care less if he was alive or if he was dead. The human that he knew had completely changed. Brooke, who would have done anything for him and would always be ready to help him destroy the human race, was now EB, who couldn't care less for anything like that and just wanted to fight and get into a heap of trouble, maybe even kill someone.

Then again, EB could always come in handy when it came to killing the Dib. If EB were as angry as she had been when he was in her world back when they fought those boys then he wouldn't ever have to deal with the Dib-stink ever again! But he had to make sure that EB didn't kill him first.

So Zim stood there and he thought about what to do.

He could put her in a kind of stasis. Then he could just keep her there and wait until he was ready to kill the Dib. He could put her in some pain to get her angry and then release her at Dib's house, tricking her into thinking that Dib caused the pain.

But what if she found out that it had been Zim? What if she went after him? He had no doubt that EB would be a challenge if he was forced to fight her.

Then he could always just make her stay angry but make sure that she trusted him. If he could convince her that the Dib-stink had said horrible things about her then that may work without hurting him at all? Maybe. But not too many things got EB mad. You called her a freak and she would say thank you and give you a hard punch in the arm later on. That was it.

There was a tapping on Zim's head.

He looked up into Brooke's brown eyes and nearly fell to the ground in surprise.

Brooke raised an eyebrow at him when he did that. Zim got a little bit calmer after that.

"What were you doing?"

"Eh?"

"You were just standing there and shaking your head a lot. Sometimes you would mutter stuff like Dib-stink and pummel me. What were you talking about? I didn't catch it."

"Uh… Uh…"

Zim realized that he had to think of something and fast.

"Look! Over there! The Massive ship is landing! My Tallest!"

Brooke hurriedly whipped her head around to see.

"The Tallest? Why would they come t—"?

Zim locked his hands together into one big fist… Then he hit Brooke in the back of the head.

She fell and hit the pavement quietly without another word.

He only then realized that he had been holding his breath. The Irken breathed out. Zim looked down at Brooke as she lay on the pavement in front of him. His hands came up and grabbed his forehead. His eyes got really big. "This is not good…"

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kim: Uh oh. Looks like Zim is in some trouble!!

Brooke: He would be if he hit me upside the head. And how could he knock _me_ out?! I don't sleep as it is!

Kim: Uh… That's why! Because you don't sleep!

Brooke: … That's a stupid reason.

Kim: Do not make fun of my reasons! REVIEW PEOPLES OR I WILL HAVE BROOKE GO TO YOUR HOUSE AND TAKE ALL OF YOUR FAVORITE STUFF AWAY! THEN I'LL SELL IT ON EBAY!!! ……………….Oo I rhymed.


	17. Black Water

Chapter 16

Her eyes opened slowly and she calmly sighed to herself. Her head was hurting and she felt really sick. It was sort of like she was at sea but hadn't known it and she was just lying there as the boat rocked back and forth and back and forth with the waves. You could say that it 'ebbed and flowed'.

So she looked out in front of her and nearly heaved something awful when she saw what she saw.

Water.

Black water all around her. Of course it couldn't be black in the daytime but at night, when there was no sun, only the moon, anything could be black. And so the water was black.

Brooke lifted her head up. She was on a boat, made of wood, and she was still in her garments from the skool dance. Brooke turned a little bit, admiring the view, when she saw someone that she had never expected to see in a boat, least of all near water!

It was Zim. He had his fingers tapping the edge of the boat and where his nose should have been was resting on the side as he stared into the abyss. The Irken was crouched on his knees and was just looking at the water under him. Brooke thought that he would actually dare to touch it.

She sort of knew why he didn't though. Brooke remembered Zim bathing in past before they left his base because it had been called for a burst of rain late that night. So he had done so just in case. And yet even though he would be protected from the water he didn't dare to touch it. Because Brooke knew that, even as protected as he could get, Zim would never willingly touch water. Never!

It wasn't a surprise that this was no exception.

Zim hadn't realized that Brooke had woken up yet. So he was still leaning over the side of the boat and string at the black water. It took her a while to gain up the nerve to actually made him move because that, out of all of the poses of Zim that she had ever drawn or ever seen or read about, this was, defiantly, the best. It was the cutest. The most wonderful. The most innocent. It was, truly, the best pose of invader Zim that she had ever seen. And she didn't even know if she would be able to draw it right after that moment. Maybe something close but never the right one. No.

So that fact, alone, stopped her from stirring him from the longest of long times. And she just sat there and watched him for a long time and she waited as he looked into the water, thinking about touching it. And sometimes he would get close and then he'd pull back. And he never did get around to touching it at all. No. He sat back a few times, but he had his eyes closed. Then he moved forwards again and looked into the water.

It was about 20 minutes now after Brooke had woken up and she decided that she would lean over the boat and stare into the water with him. Because, although she wasn't an Irken, or Zim for that matter, she wondered if it was possible for her to see water as an Irken would have. And so she leaned over the side and looked into the water.

Zim saw her reflection and nearly jumped out of his skin.

He leapt up in the boat and it rocked so much that Brooke had to pull away fast so that her face didn't go in.

When Zim saw that she was awake and that it was just Brooke his arms fell to their sides and he relaxed. He hung his head like he was embarrassed and then slowly sat back down in the boat.

Brooke sort of smiled in his direction. She wasn't exactly sure of what she could say at this point but she was trying to think of something good. Something really good that she could say to him and make him feel all ok again and not fear the water. Because although he would deny it she knew that, at that moment, he was terrified. But he had done this for her and she knew that.

Because she liked the water.

And she was glad that he had remembered that about her.

Brooke watched as Zim put his hands on two oars, one on either side of the boat. He didn't move them and he didn't row but it looked like he just put them there for comfort. Zim just wanted to feel more comfortable when he was on the water. Since he had so much confidence in himself he felt that keeping the oars steady should be his job. Because if there was anyone that wouldn't dunk him into the water it was no on but himself. No one.

That's came to Brooke instantly and she smiled. But Zim didn't see it.

There was a pain just then. And what a pain it was when she felt it. It was like nothing that she had ever felt before. Somehow it was beyond anything that she felt that she could bare and yet she was able to do it and not cry out or cry for that matter. Instead she kneeled over and clutched her stomach, where it hurt the most, but the pain was all around her body.

Something about this. Something about this very moment was familiar. It was like she had done it all before but she couldn't quite put her finger on it just yet. It was like something almost just like this had happened and the pain was like something that was trying to remind her of it. But, for some reason, she couldn't remember what it was that she needed to remember because she had forgotten it and could no longer recall… (Kim: Yeah… Something that Captain Jack Sparrow would say I guess.)

"What's wrong?"

She looked up. That was another picture of Zim that she loved.

He looked innocent, scared and utterly adorable. And not like Johnny Depp adorable but like Gir to Gir fans adorable and Dib to Dib fans adorable and Zim to Zim fans adorable and then all of then multiplied by ten thousand. That's how adorable he was right then and there.

Then it hit her.

The water.

The boat.

The scene.

The air.

The Zim.

It was all the same! It was all the same as before she had come back! Everything! That meant that she had been able to foresee the future and what it held. She had been able to see the future. Which meant that she also knew what was to come up next and what she was meant to do before it was to happen.

But she just… couldn't… do it.

That would set her back years of being anti-social and hating towards all humans!

Then again… Zim wasn't human. So, with that taken into consideration, did it really matter? If he wasn't human then did it really matter if she did what she wanted to do oh so badly? If she was EB she knew that she could do it and have no trouble with it at all. But she couldn't get in touch with that mean half of herself and she couldn't do anything to get her to come out and help out.

So Brooke had to muster what courage that she could to do it and make the future come true. If that was even possible…

"You're scared?" she asked.

"Yes. A little bit. Water makes me uneasy."

"I see…" She rubbed her chin with her finger, just like she had done in her premonition. Then she looked up and stared into his glistening, red eyes. She'd never seen them look so good. So bright and full of the hope that Zim always carried with him. And just then she felt ready to do what she wanted to. "Maybe this will help." And she reached her hand out to Zim's face.

She was only a little bit away.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gir sat in the brush, wet and rusty a little bit. He pulled the water bushes away from his line of vision and then looked at the boat. Then he smiled when he saw his master and the pretty girl sitting in it together.

The little robot turned to his army and nodded, a smile on his face.

Minimoose hovered just above him, watching the army and waiting for Gir's signal to go.

Gir looked at the floating moose then back at the army. He raised his hand into the air. His eyes were red.

Each soldier in his army raised a fin or a flipper or whatever he or she could.

Then Gir said, his eyes going blue again, "Now we make them kiss like kissy fishes."

Minimoose squeaked.

The army made pucky noises that, when translated, meant "Yay!"

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kim: OMG GIR HAS AN ARMY!! THAT'S SO CUTE!! But Dib is still my favourite. He's my wittle Dibby-chan!

Brooke: Get on with the story. And I better not do what I think you're going to make me do.

Kim: Me? Do something that you don't like? _Perish the thought_, Brooke.

Brooke: … OK. Now I **know** that I'm going to hate what's to come.


	18. Leaning back

Chapter 17

Brooke leaned back

She just… couldn't do it. She couldn't.

Doing something like that would ruin her. And even with no kids from her dimension actually there, she still couldn't do it because she would always know. She would always know that she had caved into a boy and that she had kissed him and that she had gone soft. And no one would seem right to her anymore, and nothing would seem right and she wouldn't feel right and nothing would look right and the world wouldn't _be_ right. Brooke kissing a boy, for all she knew, could tear apart the very fabric of space and time!

Sure she'd done it before but that was from crushes or kissing her father goodnight. Kissing a boy, even just on the cheek, was entirely different and she just couldn't live with herself if she threw everything away for one boy just before she could really feel ok with it. And she wasn't ok with it.

And so she didn't kiss Zim.

Brooke pulled his wig off instead.

She held it close to her, like it was Zim itself, and sighed mentally. From the corner of her eye she watched as Zim leaned back too and he seemed to sigh. But she knew that that couldn't be true and she left it as an imaginary action. She knew that Zim couldn't ever give a sigh over a human, regrettably. That was insane!!

So she slowly ran her fingers through the fake strands of the fake hair and looked into the black of it and then into the black of the water. It was so calm and it could have been better, maybe. But not now.

Because now, because she was so stubborn, she had ruined the moment and the only chance that she would, probably, ever get to kiss Zim. Now the moment was gone and the time had passed and Zim had leaned back and she had leaned back and nothing was right.

So even after not kissing him nothing felt right and nothing looked right and she didn't feel right. Brooke had ruined it and she couldn't ever get that moment back and for that she hated herself more than ever. And she felt ready to go home and cut herself and become and EMO like so many kids thought that she was and she was going to let her blood drain and become paler and paler and paler by the moment as she slowly got weaker and, eventually, died. Not in real life but inside. In fact, it felt like she had already done it and that death was only minutes away.

So she waited in the silence, Zim across from her on the boat, slowly looking into the lagoon again. So she followed his stare and looked in as well. And the water was calming. And she was able to relax.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Zim watched her lean back.

Brooke leaned back against the edge of the boat for a moment and he felt his heart-organ sink far past his squeedly spooch. And he felt sick but Gir wasn't there to fetch him the bucket and so he held back his sickness and went silent like she was.

The girl leaned forwards again and he leapt at the action but all she did was take the wig from his head. Zim wriggled his antennas in the breeze and watched as she slowly ran her fingers through the fake strands of his fake hair. He watched her quietly.

Secretly, he didn't know what he was thinking.

Did he want it to happen?

He didn't even know what _it_ was.

But he was sure that she had been getting ready to do something that he had heard about and studied. When he had confronted the other pig-smellies about it they hadn't answered him right and they had made gagging motions and sounds. So Zim left them alone and he left the urge to know about it. This_ 'kissing'._

Right now he still wondered what it was like exactly.

Zim had been so sure that Brooke had been getting ready to do this 'kiss' thing with him. He'd read all about kisses and, on Valentine's Day, Gir had even explained to him that many humans shared kissing moments for reasons not yet known to him. And since the other children never answered him he was hoping that experiencing a 'kiss' would help him to better understand what the hell it really was.

But the stupid human girl hadn't done what she had been supposed to. After constant research Zim had learned the differing steps to discovering if a human female was going in for a 'kiss'. He had leaned all of the signs. Zim had memorized the way their eyes glazed over and how they looked distracted and how they leaned in and said something that trailed off into a motion. And Brooke had done everything that he had read the female do. She hadn't touched his hand but that was, apparently, for the older ones. And she had done everything that showed that she was going in for a 'kiss' but she hadn't done it. She hadn't kissed him at all.

Feeling rather upset, Zim leaned back against the boat's edge and went back to his stare into the water. He wondered, still, what on Irk a 'kiss' was, when humans used them, and why they used them with other humans. Then he wondered why it hadn't happened to him. Because he had heard that a 'kiss' was meant to be 'amazing' and he wanted to feel this sense of amazingness like so many human had claimed to do.

Kim: HAHA!! FOOLED EVERYONE. Unless of course you thought that this was going to actually happen.

Brooke: whew… I'm saved… thank you for Kim's bad sense of chapters and making people that read them feel mad.

Kim: But that's not the end of it peoples. No. Remember that Gir still has an army. But does anyone know what the army consists of and what is going to happen. And just how did Red and Purple decide to mess with Zim? More romance and humour to come!

Brooke: Crap…


	19. Kiss the girl

Chapter 18

Brooke sighed.

Zim sighed.

They both sighed.

"Maybe… We should head back," Zim said as he gripped the ores.

"Yeah. That might be a good idea." Brooke leaned over the side of the boat and lightly touched the water, running her finger around in circles. She watched as the water moved and then kept moving when it was so far away from her. It was when she was watching this that she noticed the black that was coming up to them.

It wasn't the black like the lagoon. No this was an eerie black and it was all over the place. It kept coming closer and closer and Brooke sat up so quickly that she almost knocked the entire boat over.

Zim thrashed where he was and nearly fell out. He gripped the sides of the wood and dug his claws into the wood so that he couldn't fall out, sort of like a cat when you throw them against a ceiling. But when he did this he also dropped the ores and they floated away from the boat.

His mouth opened in shock at what he had just done because it was not only stupid but also completely Gir-worthy. "Great! There go the ores!" Zim cried out with protest. He folded his arms and scowled at Brooke like it was her fault that he had done that in the first place. "You see what you made Zim do now?" he pointed an accusing finger in Brooke's direction.

The human girl didn't answer him and just kept looking into the black of the water.

Did you hear me? Do not ignore Zim!"

e folded his arms and scoweled at Brooke like it was her fault thsat he had done that. "You see what you made Zim dso

"Shh!"

"Do not shh Zim!"

"I said shh!"

"I said do not shh Zim!"

Brooke clapped her hand over his mouth. "**Shh**!!"

They sat quietly in the dark and waited as the sound closed in. Brooke slowly took her hand off of Zim's mouth but she also lifted her finger to her lips to signal to him that they still had to be quiet and just listen to what was going on around them. So they sat in the boat for about 5 minutes and all they did was sit there and wait in the silence of the lagoon for something to happen. Something fantastic had to happen and it had to happen soon. Otherwise…

"Nothing's happening!" Zim called out at the top of his lungs. "We should just go back to the base! Being near all this human filth water is making Zim nervous."

Brooke sighed. "Fine. I guess that nothing's going to—"

The boat rocked and Zim nearly fell out. Brooke quickly looked over the side of the boat to see the black cloud from before as it swirled and took up all of the water beneath them.

She sat back in the boat with her eyes wide. Zim crossed his arms and scowled in her direction. "You see what you did?" he said with a vile tone to his voice. "You jinxed it by talking. You human females are nothing but trouble!"

"Me?! You're the one that lifted that aura of still with your constant chatter! How could any of these events that befell us on this night possibly be of consequence to me? Especially this one!"

"Stupid human!"

"Ineffectual Irken!"

"Pig-smelly!"

"Defective simpleton!"

"You dare call Zim defective?"

"You dare call me a pig? What with all the waffles you eat I'm surprised you're not fat as a hog right now!"

"Do not speak back to Zim! I'll atomize your brain stems!"

"Converse with me in such a manner and I'll pound you upside the head!"

It was then that the boat rocked again. But this time it was Brooke's end that was given the real jerk. She was thrown high up and out of her seat. Then she fell back into the boat but in a really uncomfortable position. Now she was no longer in her seat but was, instead, leaning against Zim. Their heads were touching. Both Zim and Brooke felt their faces turn red as a beat. But neither of them realized that the other was in the same emotional state since they were of different species.

Zim took his finger and pushed Brooke off on him by pushing on her temple. "Don't touch me…"

Brooke frowned as she was pushed away but she gladly moved and sat back on her side. "Hurry up and paddle. We've got to get back to shore before whatever's knocking the boat tips us over completely."

"I'm not putting my superior hands in filthy human water! Especially when there's a creature that wants to eat them! It's probably a sick, twisted, mutated specimen from your pathetic, polluted planet!"

"Or maybe you created it and then lost control of it?"

Zim went quiet.

Brooke rolled her eyes, leaned over the boat and began to push the water behind her as she tried to get them to the shore. While they went along the lagoon neither of them could shake the feeling that they were being watched and with such a quiet time they also couldn't help but hear the sound that was rising in volume.

A quiet music was slowly getting louder and at first they thought that they were getting closer to shore. But then the boat rocked and Brooke was forced to stop in fear that something would eat her hands off or pull her overboard. It was then they noticed that, even though they weren't getting any closer to the land, the music was still getting louder.

Then a series of familiar squeaks surprised them and the music began to play with more of a rhythm.

"Percussion…" came a weird, Jamaican voice. "Strings, winds, words…"

"_There you see her…_

_Sitting there across the way…"_

Zim turned his head away from looking at the water. He was just about to ask Brooke if this was a lame attempt at scaring him when something caught his eye. The light from the moon, which was coming down through the trees, made her hair glimmer and shine like she had just washed it and that she actually cared about her hair. It was hypnotizing, the way she looked just then.

Suddenly the boat seemed to turn and a wave of water towered over Brooke head in such a way that she could only glisten more. And with the added effect of the moonlight it was just beautiful.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gir pulled back on the leaved of the trees above the boat and smiled. He peered down and looked at his master as he looked over at the pretty girl and became fixed on the way she looked just then.

Then the little robot signaled to minimoose to have the fish turn the boat clockwise for more effect. Then he lightly giggled to himself and plunged into the water, making a splash so high it would have made Cannonball, from Lilo and Stitch, weep with envy.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"_She might got a lot to say…_

_But there's something about her…_

_And you don't know why…_

_But you're dying to try._

_You want to kiss the girl."_

Jets of water exploded around the boat. Zim was so surprised that he fell backwards and his head landed in Brooke's lap.

"_Yes, you want her…_

_Look at her you know you do…_

_It's possible she wants you too._

_There is one way to ask her._

_It don't take a word,_

_Not a single word._

_Go on and kiss the girl…"_

There was that human thing again! A kiss!

Zim noticed Brooke's face go red again.

He sat up and then turned back to her…

"Say it with me now… 

_Shalalalala!_

_My oh my looks like the boy's too shy,_

_Ain't gonna kiss the girl._

_Shalalalala!_

_Ain't that sad,_

_It's such a shame, too bad._

_He's gonna… miss the girl…"_

Then a series of little effects on pipes or something came forth and a breeze swept through the trees. Brooke's hair was swept into her face and boy was she surprised. But then Zim pushed it out of the way again.

Brooke gripped his hand, though she didn't know why, and then looked up into his wonderful, red eyes. And for the moment they just stayed like that and looked into each other's eyes.

"_Now's you moment."_

"Ya, ya, ya…" 

"_Floating in a blue lagoon."_

"Ya, ya, ya…" 

"_Boy you better do it soon,_

_No time will be better."_

"Ya, ya…" "Ya, Ya…" 

_She says lots of words,_

_But she won't say a word when you,_

_Kiss the girl!"_

Two fish pushed up and out of the water. They were on either side of the two people in the boat and so they pushed them together more. Their faces almost touched again.

"_Shalalalala,_

_Don't be scared."_

"_**Shalalalala"**_

"_You better be prepared."_

"_**Ya, ya, ya…"**_

"_Go on and kiss the girl…"_

"_**Whoa, whoa!"**_

"_Shalalalala,"_

"_**Ya, ya, ya…"**_

"_Don't stop now,_

_Don't try to hide it now…_

_You wanna…_

_Kiss the girl."_

"_**Whoa! Whoa!"**_

More jets erupted and went all around the boat. Zim took Brooke's hands in his own. Now was his moment to discover the secrets of a 'kiss'.

"_Shalalalala,_

_Float along,_

_And listen to the song._

_The song say 'kiss the girl'"_

"_**Whoa, whoa!"**_

"_Shalalalala,_

_The music play,_

_Do what the music say,_

_You wanna kiss the girl."_

"_**Girl…"**_

"_You've got to…"_

"_**Kiss the girl… I tell you…"**_

"_Kiss the girl…_

_Go on and…_

_Kiss the girl."_

"_**Girl…"**_

"_You gotta…_

_Kiss the girl…_

_Go on and…!_

_Kiss the girl…"_

"_**Kiss the girl…"**_

Brooke and Zim leaned in close. Brooke's eyes were closed; Zim's hopes were up.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dib walked out of the skool and sighed. He was pretty bummed that Brooke had gone home already. He'd been having such a good time with her. But at least he was away from Gretchen for a while.

So he slowly walked back home. But he stopped when music caught his ear. He listened carefully and then followed it to where it was coming from. Slowly he made his way to where the old, black lagoon was.

Dib pushed his way past trees and the like. He moved into the brush and then looked out at the water. And in the dense light that the moon gave him he could see two silhouettes on the water in a boat. They were slowly leaning in on one another and he could recognize them both when they were on the brink of touching.

"Zim?… Brooke?!"

The boat tipped as the figure jerked in surprise and they both fell out.

Dib's face flushed and he hurried away so as not to be clobbered by an angry EB.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kim: Aw. They still didn't get to. And yeah. In case my chapter wasn't clear. Tic Tac was right. The army that Gir had was a bunch of fish and frogs! Yay! I have a fish in my room! His name is Dib! Isn't that shweet?

Brooke: You're obsessed.

Kim: And you aren't with Zim?

Brooke: Gee, let me think about that. No!

Kim: Suuuuurrrrre you're not… I **really** believe you…

Brooke: (Grumble)


	20. Dreams

Chapter 19

Zim tried to stay above the water as best as he could. He struggled against the rapids and he kicked and he tried to swim but it was so hard and he was getting so tired. His head went under and he tried to keep his hands up but they went under with the rest of his body.

The poor, little Irken was tossed around under the waves, the water quickly eating away at his skin. He wanted to cry out but that would let the water enter his mouth and then only Irk knows what kind of damage it could have done to him. So he was tossed about and crashed into rocks that were at the bottom of the source of water.

Suddenly, he was rocketed up and out of the water by a jet of air. But his joy was soon replaced with distress again because there was nothing to catch him. Zim fell back into the water and he kicked to try and stay at the surface as best as he could.

He kicked at the water like he had learned most human did to stay up and he tried to paddle himself to shore but there was no land and he was all alone. The water slowly ate away at his skin and he wanted to cry out in both pain and for help so badly. He wanted to cry out so very badly that… He did.

"Help!" Zim cried, though he didn't expect anyone to help him, let alone answer. "Help! Gir! Any human! Brooke!"

The water around him began to chance colour. First it was a horrible, sickening, shade of pink, so bright that it was blinding. Then it went to a blue and then green, like his skin. That made it so that he was sure that no one would be able to see him, even if they could have before. Then it went into a red colour, like blood, and he felt even more terrified than before. Then the colour turned black like death and he was so scared that he felt that he had to call out again or no one would ever hear him.

A wave came up and lapped his face and Zim hesitated calling out. But that was something that he would regret because more waved began to beat him.

Then his head went under again and he hit a rock and his mouth opened and he felt the pain as it went down his throat. This time, when he surfaced, he didn't hesitate to scream out loud for help to come and get him.

"Help! Anyone! Gir! Minimoose! Brooke!"

A hand gripped his and Zim was lifted out of the water by it. It pulled him up and the pain was gone instantly.

He opened his eyes, one at a time, and looked at the water below him. It was still black but the waves were getting calmer and calmer until, eventually, there weren't any left at all. Zim sighed in relief and then looked up to see who had saved him.

Zim expected to see Gir or Minimoose, seeing as only they could fly. But he didn't see either of them. Instead he was staring into the smiling face of Brooke as she hovered above the water and held his hand tight in hers.

She was just floating there, in mid air, and holding him tight in her hand so that he wouldn't fall into the black waters of the ocean underneath. Zim saw her smile at him and, just then, she looked so much nicer than he had ever seen her before. She looked like she could have been a happy girl with not a care in the world and so much love in her heart that, had it been tranquilizer she could have killed an elephant with one kiss.

"You called?" she asked, still smiling.

Zim gulped. "Uh… yes… I guess so…"

Then suddenly he felt so light. Zim felt light gravity no longer applied to him and he was so over whelmed that he turned to Brooke to give him answers to explain why he felt like that. But she just smiled and then she did the last thing that he wanted her to do just then.

She let go of his hand.

Zim waited for the sting of the water to come onto him but it never did. And when he heard her laugh out loud he opened his eyes to find that he was floating too. He was flying without anything to help him. Zim was actually flying!

He floating up in front of Brooke and looked into her face as she smiled at him with her eyes closed.

"How? How is this possible?"

"Does it really matter?" Brooke said as she took his hands. "It's happening. Do you truly need the specifics of how such a wonderful even is occurring?"

"Yes," was his answer.

Brooke pushed his hand up to his neck and then slowly let go. She wrapped her arms around his neck and moved in close. This made Zim go quite red. Her eyes opened and her smile softened. Then she leaned in and so did he…

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Zim opened his eyes and sat up. He sighed and pulled the blankets off of him.

Brooke had convinced him to try and sleep. She had told him that it was a refreshing thing to do and, even though he'd tried before, he did it because she asked. And this time he really liked how the results came out. He felt refreshed and happy and all sorts of weird things that he'd never felt before.

Zim hopped out of his new bed and walked out of the room that he had slept in deep in his base. He crossed the hall and stopped at Brooke's room door. Slowly he pressed his antenna to the metal and he listened to see what she was up to.

It didn't really come as a shock that he hear typing sounds. Brooke often worked on the computer late at night. He heard her typing away on the computer and then he heard the occasional scribbles of her pencil when it came into contact with her paper and drawings.

Then Zim continued through the hall. He passed Gir's room and then went to the elevator. He really wanted to tell the Tallest of how refreshing a sleep was. He thought that maybe they might like to try one.

"Computer. Take me to the communications room."

The computer sighed. "Fine."

Zim waited as he was taken there.

When the ride stopped he stepped out and gapped at what he saw. Wires were broken. Computer panels were smashed. Flooring tiles were out of place and dented. The walls were marked up so badly it would take him forever to get them clean again. His entire communications room was completely destroyed. (Kim: the culprits… unknown? Hmm…)

Zim fell to his knees and cried out. "Ah! My base! My beautiful base!"

He felt a hand touch the top of his head. Zim looked up to see Brooke, standing there in a pair of black pyjamas with a black top and purple dot in the centre. She smirked down at him. He just looked up at her.

"Looks like someone got in."

He nodded sadly.

Brooke leaned down, her hand still on top of his head. She smiled at him, her eyes closed. It was the same way that she had in his dream. "Well, I'll help you clean this up. OK?"

He nodded.

"Then we'll dance like piggies!" Gir landed on Brooke's head, coming from who knows where. He danced a little bit, aggravating the teen.

Zim smirked but he also moved back in the process.

THE END

Kim: I liked this one! And I didn't kill you at the end!

Brooke: What is with you and making me kiss?!

Kim: I dunno…


End file.
